Twipra Kingdom (Sanskrit: Tripura, Anglicized: Tippera) was one of the largest ancient kingdom of the Tipra people of the Bodo-Kachari ethnicity in the Northeastern region of the Indian Subcontinent having a chronicle of 186 Kings till the present times (Maharaja Pradyot Kishore Manikya, better known as Kirit Pradyot Deb Burman).
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The present political areas which were part of the Tipra Kingdom are:
The Tipra Kingdom in all its various ages comprised the areas with the borders:
The Twipra Kingdom was founded and ruled by the Tipra people (today's people with the Dev Burman-Dev Varman-Debbarman-Debbarma surnames) and also comprised the Jamatia, Riang, Tripura-Noatia, Halam communities of today as subjects.
Twipra is short for Twima Bupra in Tipra language which means confluence/meeting place of Rivers, i.e. the confluence of the Brahmaputra river. Tipra is the shorter form of Twipra.
Scientists have pointed out that the Bodo-Kachari group of people migrated from South China via Tibet to present areas of North-East India and Bangladesh well before the 1st century B.C when Buddhism was formally introduced to China because the Bodo-Kachari people show no trace of Buddhism.
The Bodo-Kachari people gradually settled into the present areas and formed the communities of the Bodo, Kachari, Garo, Tipra, Dimasa, Koch peoples. They formed their respective powerful kingdoms such as the:
The Bodo-Kachari people basically stayed around the Brahmaputra river (which they called the 'Big River', Dima/Twima) and around its tributaries.
These communities were well-established in these lands long time before the Aryan settlement of Bengal and Assam.
The Tipra Kingdom was established around the confluence of the Brahmaputra river (Twima) with the Meghna and Surma rivers in today's Central Bangladesh area. The capital was called Khorongma (Kholongma) and was along the Meghna river in the Sylhet Division of present-day Bangladesh.
The Kings of the Tripura had the title of father, justifying the Tripuri view of a King as a "Father of the Country".
The Kings of the Tipra had the title of 'FA' (Pha means 'Father' in Kokborok) justifying the Chinese-Confucian view of a King as a Father of the Country.
According to Rajmala, King Himti also known as Jujaru Pha or Hamtor Pha, who was the 118th king of Twipra Kingdom was the first king to annex and subjugate a part of Bengal and to commemorate/mark the victory, the Tring (Twipra Era) was introduced. His then capital was in 'Kholongma'. To mark his victory the Twipra era known as Tring was started from 590 A.D and is being used till today by the Tipra people.
In the 8th century A.D. the Kingdom shifted its capital eastwards along the Surma river in Sylhet near present Kailasahar town of North Tripura.
The religion of the Tipra had 14 Gods and Goddesses known as choddha devta (in Bengali) and is still preserved in the Choddha Devta Mandir in Old Agartala, which is maintained by the Tipra priests known as Chontai's, who oversee the festivals of the Kharchi and Ker according to traditions. It was similar to the Chinese folk religions.
Ratna Fa adopted the title Manikya in the 13th century and since then the Kings of Tripura had the title of Manikya till the death of Bir Bikram Kishore Manikya in 1947 AD. Ratna Fa shifted the capital to Rangamati on the banks of the river Gumti now in South Tripura.
A glorious period of the Tipra started where they ruled over their most vast area at this time. Rangamati was renamed Udaipur after Udai Manikya.
Kings such as Govinda Manikya ruled over large areas and confronted and stopped the advance of the Mughals and other Muslim Kingdoms at this time.
Finally after many wars over the centuries with the Muslim Sultans and Mughals the territory of Tipra gradually started diminishing and by the time the British came to rule Bengal in the 18th century Tipra came to include only the Tippera District (present Comilla District in Bangladesh) and Hill Tippera District (present Tripura state in India). Sylhet (including Cachar) and Chittagong was lost by then to the British.
The last independent and crowned King of Tripura, Bir Bikram Kishore Manikya, died in 1947, ending the Independence and existence of the once powerful Twipra Kingdom.
The newly crowned head of the Manikya Dynasty, Pradyot Bikram Kishore Manikya, is an upcoming political leader and a media magnet.
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