The historical chapter of the Royal line of Tripura known a Manikya Dynasty had actually begun the reign of Maharaja Maha Manikya who ascended the tcrown 1400 A.D. Maharaja Maha Manikya was the first ruler who started rulling the State the Royal title of Manikya. In between the first ruler Maharaja Maha Manikya and the last ruler Maharaja Bir Bikram Kishore Manikya Bahadur ruled the princely State by assuming Royal title of Manikya. The long period over 547 years altogether 35 Maharajas ruled the kingdom of Tripura. The last king Maharaja Bir Bikram Kishore Manikya Bahadur who regined for the period from 1923 to 1947. He was a versatile as well as farsighted king who died on 17 May, 1947.

The colorful kingdom , princely rule came to close due to the merger of the State with India on 15 October, 1949. Maharani Kanchan Prava Maha Devi who signed the Tripura Merger Agreement on 9 September, 1949 in New Delhi on behalf of her son Kirit Bikram Kishore Manikya in accordance with consent of her late husband Maharaja Bir Bikram Kishore Manikya Bahadur. Thus the native princely State merge with India on 15th October, 1949. Then the princely State became a part of C State under the administration of a Chief Commissioner Sri Ranjit Roy, I.C.S. was appointed as the first Chief Commissioner on 15.10.1949. A Council of Advisory was appointed by the President of India to advice the Chief Commissioner.

Under the Act of State Re-organization the Territorial Council was set up consisting of 32 members including 2 nominee members. In accordance with the consent of the President of India the Territorial Act was enacted on May, 1963 and under the provision of Article 239 of the constitution of India a presentitive administrator of the President was appointed and coming into the force of State Organization Act. The Territorial Council was abolished and in accordance with the Constitution Act 1962 provision was made for the creation of Legislature and Council of Ministers. Tripura Territorial Council was converted to the Tripura Legislative Assembly on 1 July, 1963 and Council of Ministers was formed for the first time under the Chief Ministership of Sri Sachindralal Singha. The first Legislature of the State began with strength of 30 members. The same democracy process continued up to 1971. With the objective of giving full-fledged democratic rights to people of State Tripura was granted Statehood by Act of Parliament on January, 1972.

In General Election held in March, 1972 the National Congress won the election with overwhelming majority under the leadership of Sukhamay Sengupta. Sri Sukhamay Sengupta became first Chief Minister of the State after its attaining Statehood. Sri B. K. Nehru, I.C.S. became first Governor of Tripura State.

It is known to all that the Rajmala or the chronicles of the royal family of Tripura occupies an important place in the history of Tripura. This Rajmala is said to have been composed during the reign of Dharma Manikya (1431 AD) who engaged two Brahmin pundits named Sukreswar and Baneshwar for this great task. It is however noteworthy that the oldest Rajmala written by those two Brahmin pundits are rare and the opinion of Kailash Chandra Singha is not always acceptedby the scholars, it is perhaps a time to look at the Rajmala by Kailash Chandra Singha seriously and to avoid controversies of this work being a pioneer one. Another editor of the Rajmala, Kali Prasanna Sengupta says that the lost manuscripts of the Rajamala was discovered from Ujirbari of Agartala after the death of Birchandra. Kali Prasanna Sengupta (Vidhva is also of the opinion that Rajmala or Sri Rajmala was complied six times.Whatever may be the fact the historical value of the Rajmala is above question. We may refer here a reputed scholar named Rama Prasad Duna who in his book Tripurar Prachin Furthi Prasange has stated how he could discover four manuscripts from Rajmala office, Tripura.4 In addition to Rajmala he found out three more manuscripts namely Krishnamala, Chompak Vijaya and Gazinama.

 Apart from the Rajmala the historical importance’s of these three manuscripts have been studied by the scholars. The hero of this Krishnamala is Krishna Manikya who is said to have been the fifth king of the Tripura Raj. The Krishnamala covers an episode of the heroism of Krishna Manikya who could recapture the throne of Tripura in 1760 AD. It is likely that this Krishnamala was written during the time of Rajdhar Manikya and the time is stated to be in between 1785 AD to 1803 AD. There are many information about the reign period of Krishna Manikya and his relation with the English East India Company and the Nawab of Murshidabad have been discussed here in detail.6 It is said that as there were interaction and warfare with the Muslim power of Bengal, many terms of Arabic, Urdu and Persian are used in the Krishnamala and this may open another dimension of studying the development of contemporary literature.

The most important aspect of the Krishnamala is the history of the Kukis who were said to have been the hill tribes of the East and North East Tripura. The Champak Vijaya is a historical poem and the name of the composer is Sheikh Mahaddin. The story of this work is about the recapture of the throne by one Champak Roy who is said to have enjoyed political help from one Mirkhai of Chittagong. Infact this period was full of political crisis and it is likely that sometime during the reign of Ratna Manikya (1681ñ1712 AD) this Kavya was written by Sheikh Mahaddin. It may be known to us Manuscripts and

As Reflected in the Manuscripts that Champak Roy was driven out from Tripura by the rival King Narendra Manikya and the situation was such that he took the helping hand of Mirkhai to help Ratna Manikya, the ruling king of Tripura. Incidentally Mirkhai was an army man and his brilliant activities have been stated in the Champak Vijaya. Champak Vijaya is a historical episode in the poetic style, but its historicity and literary value are above the question. Many new information may be available after an indepth study of this document. The Gazinama is another important source material for the reconstruction of Tripura history. The author of this work is Sheikh Manur Ali. It is said that Nasir Muhammad, a zamindar of present Belonia (Dakshinsik) and he had a ryot named Pir Muhammad. The son of Pir Muhammad was Shamsher Ghazi. From his childhood Shamsher Ghazi has been described as one of the brilliant boy and the zamindar took the responsibility to look after him. But within a short time a conflict started when Shamsher Ghazi wanted to get married to Daiya Bibi, daughter of the zamindar of Belonia or Dakshinsik. After some historical development Shamsher Ghazi declared himself the zamindar of Dakshinsik. The next phase starts with the conflict and confrontation of Shamsher Ghazi with the Tripura king. The Ghazinama is also a historical poem. Various incidents have been incorporated in this work.

The significant aspect of this Kavya is the statement of Tripura Kingdom at a time when it was passing through various political crisis. We come across another document named Srenimala another historical work and is considered to be a Rajmala. Kali Krishna Sengupta is said to have written his Rajmala. in the light of this Srenimala.The uniqueness of this Rajamala is that one may come across a systematic list of the reigning kings of Tripura. Although there is no specific date of the composition of Srenimala yet it has 5 been accepted that it was composed sometime during the reign period of Kashi Chandra Manikya. Fact remains that there are more than one Rajmalas and there is a need to make a comprehensive study of all the Rajmalas and it is very likely that after such an attempt a new history of Tripura may be written. Kaliprasana Sengupta himself has raised many controversial points as to the origin13 of the Tripura kings and also the reign period of the different kings14 and these deserve to be sorted out. The initiative of the Manuscript Research Centre and Manuscript Conservation Centre, Tripura University may be a significant step to this effect. In the long run it is important to note that Rajamala is a document of the kings, if not the history of the people of Tripura. Again it is not out of question that the composition of Rajmala may be taken as the beginning of writing history in Bengali language.í Apart from the Rajmala there are huge number of medieval sources right from the Ain-i-Akbari to Tarikh-i-Bangla and Riyaz-usSalatin.

We have another medieval document Baharistani-Ghayebi and all these sources provide us with historical information about Tripura. The history of North East India is primarily based on a valuable document known as Buranjis. The historicity of the Buranjis cannot be underestimated. Tripura Buranji popularly known as Tripura Desar Kathar Lekha, the name by which the original manuscript is known bears testimony about the history of the region of a crucial period. We are fortunate that there is a Tripura Buranji written by Ratna Kandali and Arjundas Kataki. It has been edited by S.K. Bhuyan and published from historical and antiquarian studies Gauhati 1990. In the introduction of this Buranji S.K. Bhuyan says that Tripura Buranji has been reproduced from an old manuscript in the British Museum, London. A photostate copy which was obtained in January 1936 through the courtesy of Dr. Lionel. D. As Reflected in the Manuscripts Barnett, the then keeper of Oriental Books and Manuscripts. The Tripura Buranji is no doubt a valuable document to study Assam Tripura relation vis-à-vis their relation with the Nawab of Bengal during Maharaja Rudra Shinga of Assam and Ratna Manikya of Tripura. It is interesting that some diplomatic relation was established between Assam and Tripura and the story runs as how Ratna Kandoli, and Arun Das Kataki played the role behind the screen.