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HISTORY

 The history of Tripura is very old. It dates back to the era of the Mahabharata. The name of the Tripura was mentioned in the the above epic along with the states like Manipur, Kamrup (Assam) etc. no doubt it was none other than present Tripura, though its location has changed from its past. Tripura's name is also mentioned in the list of states that was mentioned in the Ashoka's pillar that is now reserved in Saranath. Hiuen Tsang also mentioned in his travelogue about the presence of great Boro/Borok kingdom in the east of Bengal.  The 'Tripura' is a small kingdom, unattached with British of India. It was an independent country till the merger with union of India in 1949 A.D. There are different opinion and explanation about the origin of word Tripura among scholars and historian.

Origin of Tripura :
Earlier the name of Tripura was  Kiratbhumi, it's capital was in Tribeg. It means land of Kirat, the Tripuris used to be called previously. Some where three thousand years back its name was changed to Tripura, the reason for such is not yet settled beyond controversy.

1) In One school of thought, the word 'Tripura' originated from the king Tripur who happens to rule the state. According to the legend Tripur was the 39th descendent of Druhya, who was descendent of Yayati, one of the lunar race kings. He was so mighty that he ordered his subjects not to worship any god other than him, had no faith in god. He started torturing the subjects who defies his order. People fled in a body escape from his tyranny to near by state of Hiramba (Cachar).

 There are also other plenty of example in Tripura where different kings of Tripura named the city, towns, capitals etc according to their name. For example Udaipur, Amarpur, Kalyanpur, Dharmanagar in Tripura, Ratanpur, Bijay Nagar etc in Present Bangladesh. there are also examples of naming different lakes, Ponds, River etc in their mane, for example Dharma Sagar, Govinda Sagar, Kalyan Sagar, Bijay river etc. Even the name of many Tripuri villages, area etc are named after the head or chieftain of the village like Chintaram Sarder Para,  Ramkumar Kwpra para etc. From this facts it was all probable that the mightiest king of Tripuri people Tripur might had changed the name of the state after his name.

There are ample of examples of many states named after the rulers name, Bharata from Bharat, Bangla from Banga, Gandhar etc in the history. Apart from this many countries of the world were also named after the king or individual discoverer like, Egypt, Libya, Jordan, America, Columbia etc. So there is every reason to prove that King Tripur also named his state after his name.

2)  According to another belief Tripura is a corrupt form of Twi-pra. The meaning of Twi is water and that of pra is confluence not the near. Like lampra is meeting point of two roads, bupra is bifurcation point of tree branch. As such the Tripuri call their state as Tipra not as Tripura which has been corrupted in Sanskrit and its derivative sister languages to Tripura. This is the most accepted opinion among Tripuris. In fact what is more to be noted is that most of the villages, places in Tripura are named after various rivers, tributaries etc. like Twikormo, Twirisa, Twisarangchak, Twimudul and so forth.

3)  In another theory, it is said that there was a totem in in Tripuri mythology called Tipra, a Tortoise, which is a sort of god for Tripuri people. According to Tripuri belief whenever this tipra tortoise makes it burrow near any Tripuri home or 'jhum' (huk) a traditional agricultural hillock the family is bound to have a bad luck or omen in that year. The burrow is called Tiprakhor, burrow of Tipra Tortoise. Such tortoise is prohibited from human consumption. The Tipra tortoise is offered sacrifices so that he does not shower any bad effect to that family, like offering to the god. Whenever such Tiprakhor arise any where near any Tripuri family's habitation, the family has to worship & satisfy that Tipra tortoise to avoid the any bad effect of that god. The origin of this Tipra word is Twi (water) + Bupra (shake of)=Tipra. According to this theory it is said that the Tipra (Tripura) name of our state derived from this Tipra tortoise, the totem of Tripuri people.

4)  In one more theory, Tripura name derived from three district with which it was formed previously, namely, Chattagram, Kumilla, Noakhali. these districts were earlier parts of Tripura, (Tri=Three, Pura=city)

5)  According to another school of thought, the name Tripura was probably given to the state in honor of the temple at Udaipur, Tripureshwari , the wife of lord Shiva. But this may not be correct as the temple was built in around 1501 A.D. by king Dhanya Manikya during the period of his reign between A.D. 1490-1515, where as the name of the state was in existence long before 1501. Instead it looks more probable that the deity took the name of the state rather than the state named after the deity.
 

6)  According to Kailash Chandra Singha, a prominent historian, the word Tripura is a derivative from two different Kokborok word 'twi-pra'. Twi means water, pra means near in the Tripuri language of the inhabitant of Tripura. It is likely that the state bears the name Tripura from this fact that in ancient time the boundaries of Tripura extended up to the Bay of Bengal when its ruler held sway from Garo hill to Arakan.
 

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The Chronicle of Tripura kings are given below as per the Rajmala :

  Ujjayanta Prasad     Palace of Tripuri King

Neer Mahal 
  Water Palace

BirBikramManikya   The Last King of Tripura

Birendra Kishore
 

Radha Kishore

Birchandra Manikya
 

Ishan Chandra
 

Krishna Kishore
 

Durga Manikya

Ramganga Manikya
 

Darbar of Birbikram

Darbar of Birendra

Darbar of Radha

Palace in Night

Birbikram-Tagore

Radha-Tagore

Radha with Sandys

Darbar Birbikram

A View of Palace