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Tripura in the middle ages

The kings of tripurA are supposed to have descended from tripura of the line of druhyu, king of kirAta, and son of yayAti. tripura is said to have lived during the time of yudhiSThira. The 95th king after him was cheMthuma-phA (phA means father in the local language), who defeated a king of gauD.a; the myth is probably recounting memories of an attack by giYAsuddin iuyaj shAh. His great grandson dAGgara-phA had eighteen sons, the youngest of whom, ratna-phA is said to have become the ruler as the first mANikya king, ratnamANikya with help from the king of gauD.a, probably bArbaka shAh. Where in this mythology ends and history begins is difficult to say; the coins from this period, however, show a previous dharmamANikya I, son of mahAmANikya, who may have ruled from 1431 to 1467 (started ruling in tripurAbda 841); according to tradition, ratnamANikya is followed by his sons pratApamANikya I and mukuTamANikya, and mahAmANikya is the latter's son. Similarly, it claims that dharmamANikya's sons pratApamANikya II and dhanyamANikya succeeded him; all of this is contradicted by evidence from coinage from this period. Incidentally, the name tripurA itself may be a backformation from the name of the mongolian tribe TiprA.

In any case, under ratnamANikya I (queen: laksmI mahAdevI), a lot of bengali hindus are supposed to have come to tripurA. During this period, the army got very powerful, and the royal authority was reestablished only under dhanyamANikya (1490–1514; queen kamalA mahAdevI) after the intervening reign of mukuTamANikya, and maybe others. dhanyamANikya conquered the eastern kuki tribes and caTTagrAma. He was followed by devamANikya (queen padmAvatI devI) and then by vijaYamAnikya I (1532–63; queens vijaYAdevI, laksmI mahAdevI, sarasvatI mahAdevI, vakdevI/vAmAdevI) who defeated the kings of zrIhaTTa, jaYantiYA and khAsiYA, and fought against the karrani kings. In 1567, gopIprasAda udaYamANikya (queen hIrA mahAdevI) captured the throne from anantamANikya (queen ratnavatI mahAdevI) and changed the name of the capital from rAGAmATiYA to udaYapura. He was defeated in a fight against the mughals. The original royal line was reestablished when his son jaYamANikya I (1573; queen zubhadrA mahAdevI) was killed by amaramANikya, brother of vijaYamANikya, who ruled from 1577–1581 (queen amarAvatI mahAdevI), and conquered zrIhaTTa. During his time, the ArAkAn king sacked udaYapur. His grandson yazodharamANikya (1600–1628; queens lakSmI mahAdevI, laksmI-gaurI mahAdevI, gaurI-laksmI-jaYA mahAdevI) who followed his son rAjadharamANikya (queen satyavatI mahAdevI) fought against Ibrahim Khan, but lost and captured; after a couple of years of muslim rule, tripurA went to kalyANamANikya (1626; queen kalAvatI mahAdevI), who defended against Shah Shuja. His eldest son govindamANikya came to the throne (1660; queen guNavatI mahAdevI), but the youngest nakSatrarAYa plotted against him: govindamANikya therefore gave up the throne and nakSatrarAYa became the king as chatramANikya (1661). However, govindamANikya was the king again (1661–2), and was followed by his son rAmadevamANikya (1676; queens satyavatI mahAdevI, bhAgyavatI mahAdevI) and grandson ratnamANikya II (1685). He attacked zrIhaTTa, but lost to Shaesta Khan who first put narendramANikya (1693), and then ratnamANikya again (1696) on the throne. In 1712, his brother, mahendramANikya killed him, and became the king; and was followed by his brother dharmamANikya II (1714; queen dharmazIlA mahAdevI), who, in turn was defeated bu habIra, the nAYeba of DhAkA. chatramANikya's grandson jagatrAYa/jagatrAma continued ruling a small hilly region of tripurA as jagatmANikya, and had a zamindArI of some regions of erstwhile tripurA. Shujauddin reinstated dharmamANikya, and he was followed by mukunda, jaYamANikya II (1739; jaYAvatI mahAdevI) and indramANikya II (1744), but for all practical purposes, tripurA could no longer be considered independent. (There was also a king called kRSNamANikya somewhere)

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