TRIPURA (formerly called Hill Tippera), a feudatory State of India, adjoining the British district of Tippera, in Bengal. Area, 4,116 sq.m.; pop. (1931) 382,450; estimated revenue Rs. 2,971,000 (including revenue trom estates in British India). Tripura comprises six parallel ranges of hills running from north to south, at an average distance of 12 m. apart. The hills, of which the highest is 3,200 ft. above sea-level, are covered for the most part with forest and bamboo jungle, while the low ground abounds with trees of various kinds, canebrakes and swamps. The forests shelter wild elephants, bison, tigers, leopards and deer. The princi pal crop and food staple is rice. Half the population consists of Tiparas, a tribe of Mongolian origin. The capital is Agartala (pop. 9,58o), where there is an Arts college.
Tripura represents the remnant of an ancient kingdom which at various times extended in the north to Kamrup and in the east to Arakan. Ralph Fitch, who travelled through the country in
1585, noted that "the king of Tippara had almost continual wars with the Arakanese." The country now included in the Tippera dis trict was conquered by the Mughals and annexed in 1733, but Tripura still remained under its own line of rulers. When the East India company obtained the diwani or financial administra tion of Bengal in 1765, they placed a Rajah on the throne, and, since 18o8, each successive ruler has received investiture from the British government. The present ruler is H. H. Maharajah Manikya Bir Bikram Kishore Deb Barman Bahaden, who suc ceeded in 1923.
The District Magistrate of Tippera is ex-officio Political Agent for the State, and the governor of Bengal acts as Agent of the Governor-General for supervising the administration.