Twipra Kingdom

Tripura Kingdom was established by Tripura people. This kingdom has around one hundred and eighty six kings till today. The present areas which were part of the Tipra Kingdom are: Sylhet, Dhaka and Chittagong Divisions of Bangladesh, Cachar Valley of Assam and states of Mizoram and Tripura.

The Tipra Kingdom was bordered by Khasi Hills in the North, Manipur Hills in the North-East, Arakan Hills of Burma in the East, the Bay of Bengal in the South and the Brahmaputra River in the West.

The Tripura Kingdom also comprised the Jamatia, Riang, Tripura-Noatia, Halam communities. Twipra is short term for Twima Bupra in Tipra language. It means meeting place of rivers.

According to scientists the Bodo-Kachari group of people migrated from South China via Tibet to present areas of North-East India before the 1st century B.C when Buddhism was formally introduced to China. These people also gradually settled into the present areas and formed the communities of the Bodo, Kachari, Garo, Tipra, Dimasa, Koch communities. They formed their respective kingdoms: Kachari Kingdom in Assam, Koch Kingdom in West Bengal and Twipra Kingdom in East Bengal. The Bodo-Kachari community stayed around the Brahmaputra River and around its tributaries. These communities were well-established before the Aryan settlement of Bengal and Assam.

The Tipra Kingdom had Khorongma as its capital. In the 8th century A.D the capital was shifted eastwards along the Surma River in Sylhet in North Tripura.

They worshipped choddha devta and it is still preserved in the Choddha Devta Mandir in old Agartala. This temple is maintained by the Tipra priests known as Chontai. Their golden period started when they ruled over their most vast area at this time. The place Rangamati was renamed Udaipur after Udai Manikya. Govinda Manikya, one of the kings of this dynasty ruled over large areas and stopped the advance of the Mughals and other Muslim Kingdoms during that time.

Eventually the territory of Tipra gradually started decreasing and by the time the British came to rule Bengal in the 18th century Tipra kingdom only included the Tippera District and Hill Tippera District. They lost Sylhet and Chittagong to the British.

The last independent and crowned King of this dynasty was Bir Bikram Kishore Manikya. He died in 1947 thereby ending the Independence and existence of Twipra Kingdom.