Tripura’s capture of Chittagong

01The Rajmala’s account

The Rajmala, written in Bengali verse at the Tripura court, credits Dhanya Manikya with campaigns against the Bengal Sultanate in which his generals took Chittagong, then contested between Bengal and Arakan. Coins struck by Dhanya Manikya and the Rajmala both show a ruler who also took territory in the Sylhet and Comilla regions. Husain Shah sent several expeditions in return, and Chittagong passed back to Bengal within a few years. Later in the century the port fell to Arakan, and then to the Portuguese adventurers who settled there.

02Tripura Sundari

Dhanya Manikya is remembered above all for the temple of Mata Tripura Sundari at Udaipur, the old capital of Tripura, which he built in 1501 and which is counted among the Shakti Peethas. His reign marks the height of the Manikya kingdom, which ruled Tripura without break until it joined the Indian Union in 1949, one of the longest-ruling Hindu dynasties in India. The temple at Udaipur still draws pilgrims every Diwali, when its great fair is held.

Dynasty · c. 15th century–1949 CEManikya kings of TripuraThe Manikya kings ruled Tripura for about five centuries, among the longest unbroken royal lines of Bharat. Their own chronicle, the Rajmala, was set down in Bengali verse in the fifteenth century, and Dhanya Manikya built the temple of Tripura Sundari in 1501.Read →