Tripura
Tripura is a state in northeastern India. The third-smallest state in the country, it covers ; and the seventh-least populous state with a population of 3.67 million. It is bordered by Assam and Mizoram to the east, and by Bangladesh to the north, south and west. Tripura is divided into eight districts and 23 sub-divisions, where Agartala is the capital and the largest city in the state. Tripura has 19 different tribal communities with a majority Bengali population. Bengali, Kokborok, and English are the state's official languages.
The area of modern Tripura — ruled for several centuries by the Manikya Dynasty — was part of the Tripuri Kingdom. It became a princely state under the British Raj during its tenure, and acceded to independent India in 1947. It merged with India in 1949 and was designated as a 'Part C State'. It became a full-fledged state of India in 1972.
Tripura lies in a geographically isolated location in India, as only one major highway, National Highway 8, connects it with the rest of the country. Five mountain ranges — Baramura, Atharamura, Longtharai, Shakhan and Jampui Hills — run north to south, with intervening valleys; Agartala, the capital, is located on a plain to the west. The state has a tropical savanna climate, and receives seasonal heavy rains from the south west monsoon.
Forests cover more than half of the area, in which bamboo and cane tracts are common. Tripura has the highest number of primate species found in any Indian state. Due to its geographical isolation, economic progress in the state is hindered. Poverty and unemployment continue to plague Tripura, which has a limited infrastructure. Most residents are involved in agriculture and allied activities, although the service sector is the largest contributor to the state's gross domestic product.
According to the 2011 census, Tripura is one of the most literate states in India, with a literacy rate of 87.75%. Mainstream Indian cultural elements coexist with traditional practices of the ethnic groups, such as various dances to celebrate religious occasions, weddings and festivities; the use of locally crafted musical instruments and clothes; and the worship of regional deities. The sculptures at the archaeological sites Unakoti, Pilak and Devtamura provide historical evidence of artistic fusion between organised and indigenous religions.
Etymology
The name Tripura is linked to the Hindu goddess Tripura Sundari, the presiding deity of the Tripura Sundari Temple at Udaipur, one of the 51 Shakta pithas, and to the legendary tyrant king Tripur, who reigned in the region. Tripur was the 39th descendant of Druhyu, who belonged to the lineage of Yayati, a king of the Lunar Dynasty.There are alternative theories regarding the origin of the name Tripura, such as a possible etymological reinterpretation to Sanskrit of a Tibeto-Burman name. Variants of the name include Tipra, Tuipura and Tippera, which can all denote the indigenous people inhabiting the area. A Kokborok etymology from tüi and pra has been suggested; the boundaries of Tripura extended to the Bay of Bengal when the kings of the Tipra Kingdom held sway from the Garo Hills of Meghalaya to Arakan, the present Rakhine State of Burma; so the name may reflect vicinity to the sea.
History
Although there is no evidence of Lower Paleolithic or Middle Paleolithic settlements in Tripura, Upper Paleolithic tools made of fossilised wood have been found in the Haora and Khowai valleys. The Indian epic, the Mahabharata; ancient religious texts, the Puranas; and the Edicts of Ashoka – stone pillar inscriptions of the Mauryan emperor Ashoka dating from the third century BC – all mention Tripura. An ancient name of Tripura is Kirat Desh, probably referring to the Kirata Kingdoms or the more generic term Kirata. However, it is unclear whether the extent of modern Tripura is coterminous with Kirat Desh. The region was under the rule of the Twipra Kingdom for centuries, but when this dynasty began is not documented. The Rajmala, a chronicle of Tripuri kings which was first written in the 15th century, provides a list of 179 kings, from antiquity up to Krishna Kishore Manikya, but it is not a reliable source.File:Neermahal192.jpg|thumb|200px|Neermahal Palace is the royal palace built by Bir Bikram Kishore Debbarman of the Kingdom of Tripura.
The boundaries of the kingdom changed over the centuries. At various times, the borders reached south to the jungles of the Sundarbans on the Bay of Bengal; east to Burma; and north to the boundary of the Kamarupa kingdom in Assam. There were several Muslim invasions of the region from the 13th century onward, which culminated in Mughal dominance of the plains of the kingdom in 1733, although their rule never extended to the hill regions. The Mughals had influence over the appointment of the Tripuri kings.
File:Maharani kanchan prabhadevi.jpg|thumb|left|200px|Queen Kanchan Prabha Devi who signed the instrument of accession to India as president of the Council of Regency
Tripura became a princely state during British rule in India. The kings had an estate in British India, known as Tippera district or Chakla Roshanbad, in addition to the independent area known as Hill Tippera, roughly corresponding to the present-day Tripura state. Udaipur, in the south of Tripura, was the capital of the kingdom, until the king Krishna Manikya moved the capital to Old Agartala in the 18th century. It was moved to the new city of Agartala in the 19th century. Bir Chandra Manikya modelled his administration on the pattern of British India, and enacted reforms including the formation of Agartala Municipal Corporation.
Post-independence (1947–present)
Following the independence of India in 1947, Tippera district – the estate in the plains of British India – became Comilla district of East Pakistan, and Hill Tippera remained under a regency council until 1949. The Maharani Regent of Tripura signed the Tripura Merger Agreement on 9 September 1949, making Tripura a Part C state of India. It became a Union Territory, without a legislature, in November 1956 and an elected ministry was installed in July 1963. Full statehood was conferred in 1971 by the North-Eastern Areas Act, 1971. The geographic partition that coincided with the independence of India resulted in major economic and infrastructural setbacks for the state, as road transport between the state and the major cities of the newly independent India had to follow a more circuitous route, around East Pakistan. The road distance between Kolkata and Agartala before the partition was less than, and increased to, as the route now avoided East Pakistan. The geopolitical isolation was aggravated by an absence of rail transport.After the partition of India, many Bengali Hindus migrated to Tripura as refugees fleeing religious persecution in Muslim-majority East Pakistan, especially after 1949. Settlement by Hindu Bengalis increased during the Bangladesh Liberation War of 1971. Parts of the state were shelled by the Pakistan Army during the Indo-Pakistani War of 1971. Following the war, the Indian government reorganised the North East region to ensure effective control of the international borders – three new states came into existence on 21 January 1972: Meghalaya, Manipur, and Tripura. Before Tripura's merger with the Union of India, majority of the population composed of Tripuri people. Ethnic strife between the indigenous Tripuri tribe and the predominantly immigrant Bengali community led to scattered violence, and an insurgency spanning decades, including occasional massacres such as the 1980 Mandai massacre. This gradually abated following the establishment of a tribal autonomous district council and the use of strategic counter-insurgency operations. Tripura remains peaceful, as of 2016. In retaliation for the communal violence against the Hindu minority in neighbouring Bangladesh, mosques in several areas in Tripura were attacked from 19 to 26 October 2021. The influx of refugees from erstwhile East Pakistan and present day Bangladesh leads to minoritisation of the indigenous peoples of Tripura.
Geography
Tripura is a landlocked state in North East India, where the seven contiguous states – Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland and Tripura – are collectively known as the Seven Sister States. Spread over, Tripura is the third-smallest among the 28 states in the country, behind Goa and Sikkim. It extends from 22°56'N to 24°32'N, and 91°09'E to 92°20'E. Its maximum extent measures about from north to south, and east to west. Tripura is bordered by the country of Bangladesh to the west, north and south; and the Indian states of Assam to the north east; and Mizoram to the east. It is accessible by national highways passing through the Karimganj district of Assam and Mamit district of Mizoram.Topography
The physiography is characterised by hill ranges, valleys and plains. The state has five anticlinal ranges of hills running north to south, from Baramura in the west, through Atharamura, Longtharai and Shakhan, to the Jampui Hills in the east. The intervening synclines are the Agartala–Udaipur, Khowai–Teliamura, Kamalpur–Ambasa, Kailasahar–Manu and Dharmanagar–Kanchanpur valleys. At an altitude of, Betling Shib in the Jampui range is the state's highest point. The small isolated hillocks interspersed throughout the state are known as tillas, and the narrow fertile alluvial valleys, mostly present in the west, are called Doóng/lungas. A number of rivers originate in the hills of Tripura and flow into Bangladesh. The Khowai, Dhalai, Manu, Juri and Longai flow towards the north; Sumli to the north west; the ; Gumti to the west; and the Muhuri and Feni to the south west.The lithostratigraphy data published by the Geological Survey of India dates the rocks, on the geologic time scale, between the Oligocene epoch, approximately 34 to 23 million years ago, and the Holocene epoch, which started 12,000 years ago. The hills have red laterite soil that is porous. The flood plains and narrow valleys are overlain by alluvial soil, and those in the west and south constitute most of the agricultural land. According to the Bureau of Indian Standards, on a scale ranging from in order of increasing susceptibility to earthquakes, the state lies in seismic zone V.