01The Kurma Peetha
The hill is called Kurma Peetha because its shape is the hump of a tortoise. The Manikya kings of Tripura held that the Devi asked Dhanya Manikya in a dream to bring her murti from Chittagong and seat it here. A temple of Vishnu was planned on the spot; it became the Devi’s instead. In the sanctum stand two murtis of black kasti stone, the larger Tripura Sundari and the small Chhotima, whom the kings carried with them to battle.
02Diwali at Matabari
The temple is a square cube of brick with the Bengali chala roof and a single kalash, the form Bengal and Tripura used for their shrines. Kalyan Sagar, the tank on the east side, is full of large tortoises fed by pilgrims. At Diwali a mela of several days fills Udaipur, the old Manikya capital on the Gomati, and the lamps on the tank are the sight people come for.
The life of this place
- 1501 CEMaharaja Dhanya Manikya builds the temple and installs the Devi.
Udaipur, Gomati district, 55 km south of Agartala; Udaipur has a railway station on the Agartala–Sabroom line.
