Seven Sisters..............the Second Sister

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          The Second Sister.....Tripura

                Tripura in Sanskrit means three cities, corresponding exactly to the Greek
                Tripolis. Tripur was the 39th descendant of Druhyu, who belonged to the
                lineage of Yayati, a king of the Lunar Dynasty. However, a Kokborok
                etymology from tui (water) and pra (near) seems more appropriate as the 
                boundaries of Tripura extended to the Bay of Bengal when the kings of
                the Twipra Kingdom held sway from the Garo Hills of Meghalaya to the
                Arakan, the present Rakhine State of Burma.
                

·         In Tripura, upper Paleolithic tools made of fossil wood have been found in the Haora and Khowai valleys. The Indian epic the Mahabharata, the Puranas and the edicts of Ashoka – all mention Tripura. The region was under the rule of the Twipra Kingdom for centuries. The Rajmala, a chronicle of Tripuri kings first written in the 15th century, provides a list of 179 kings, from antiquity up to Krishna Manikya (1830–1850). The sculptures at the archaeological sites Unakoti, Pilak and Devtamura provide historical evidence of artistic fusion between organised and tribal religions.  

       There were several Muslim invasions of the region from the 13th century onward, culminating in Mughal dominance of the plains of the kingdom in 1733. Tripura became a princely state during the British rule. Following the independence in 1947, the Maharani of Tripura signed the Tripura Merger Agreement on 9 September 1949, as a result of which Tripura became a Part C state of India. It became a Union Territory, without a legislature in November 1956. The road distance between Kolkata and Agartala before partition was less than 350 km and increased to 1,700 km after partition.

·        Tripura along with Manipur and Meghalaya became a state on 21 January 1972. Since partition of India, many Hindu Bengalis migrated to Tripura as refugees from East Pakistan. Before independence, most of the population was indigenous. Ethnic strife between the tribes and the predominantly immigrant Bengali community led to scattered violence, and an insurgency spanning decades.

·        The dominant ethnic groups are Bengali, Manipuri, Tripuris, Jamatia, Reang, Noatia, Koloi, Murasing, Chakma, Halam, Garo, Kuki, Mizo, Mogh, Munda, Oraon, Santhal, and Uchoi. Bengali people represent the largest ethno-linguist community of the state. Bengali culture, as a result, is the main non-indigenous culture. The Tripuri kings were great patrons of Bengali culture, especially literature; Bengali language was the language of the court. Elements of Bengali culture, such as Bengali literature, Bengali music, and Bengali cuisine are widespread, particularly in the urban areas of the state.

·        Tripura lies in a geographically disadvantageous location in India, as only one major highway, the National Highway 44, connects it with the rest of the country. Five mountain ranges—Boromura, 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.