Bengalis During Partition Came to Tripura To Save Their Religion, Says Telangana Governor
Agartala, Jan 13, 2025, By Our Correspondent66
Bengalis who came to Hill Tripura from the plains of Tripura Kings’ zamindari ( Chakla Roshnabad) were the unfortunate victims of the 1947’s ‘abnormal’ partition. They migrated here to save their religion and because they were the subjects of the Kings they chose this hill Tripura, said Jishnu Dev Varma, Governor of Telangana in an author-readers interaction on Sunday at Agartala Book Fair.
Dev Varma’s book Master of Time published by the PP publication was recently released in Agartala.
“The Bengalis had to take shelter here to save their religion. Otherwise who wants to leave his ancestral home?” he said adding that the history or life cannot be defined in black and white narratives all the time.
“No empires in any parts of the world were static—it kept on expanding and then shrinking, then expanding and then again shrinking. Take example of the Roman Empire or for that matter Ottoman Empire. So was the case of Tripura. And with the partition the history of Tripura, which included both the hills and the plains, also changed, and its territory shrank”, he said and added: “There are always grey areas and the historical events should be looked into and considered with this perspective in mind”.
On being asked about the Tripura Kings’ inclination towards Bengali language and literature Dev Varma who himself is a Royal scion pointed out that the Manikya dynasty could be divided into two phases- one was the time of warrior kings when kings’ lives were spent fighting various enemies all the time and the other was –more precisely, from the time of Birchandra Manikya, the time of the artist Kings. And, when the language, literature, arts became the cherished pursuits of the Tripura kings in the second phase, incidentally it was also the time Bengal renaissance which was then in full swing. ‘Quite naturally the Tripura kings for their kingdom’s close proximity with Bengal-both geographically and historically, were heavily influenced the Bengali language and literature and artistic endeavours”, he said.
‘And fact is, history tells us all over the world down the ages whenever renaissance took place anywhere it influenced the others hugely. Take for instance renaissance in Italy which moulded, redesigned and redefined the entire European life as well as cultural, artistic pursuits. It happens all the time, history stands testimony of this. Tripura was no exception too”, he added. Nevertheless, Dev Varma pointed out, King Radhakishore Manikya once wanted to write a dictionary of Kokborok but it did not ultimately happen.
In the informal talks in open air in the Agartala Book Fair Dev Varma also dwelt candidly on various other subjects especially the Royal history on which the book Master of Time he authored.
“The idea to write the book was to give a history of Tripura from ancient time to the new generation readers who would find Rajmala – which is replete with mythology and mostly about the kings- difficult because the archaic Bengali language and the narratives were bereft the elements that bring about an ‘intimacy’ with the reader. The new generation readers would find it hard to ‘relate’. So this book was written in a style where narratives are ‘intimate’ and factual. It was not only about the kings, it is also about the people, their life of the kingdom”.
“The Rajmala filled with myths cannot be considered as ‘history’ in true sense. It can be called as a ‘chronicle of the Kings’. If I want to know about the kings it is the people who serve the Kings who would be able to give you the best of stories relating them. If you want to know someone like a king, his driver is the best person to tell about him. It is this idea that was behind this book”, said Dev Varma who himself saw the Royal life from closest quarters.
Also Published in Tripura Times