Tripura
was an independent Hindu kingdom. It is a hilly tract and a strip of fertile
plains east of Bengal. It came into prominance soon after muslim rulers of
Bengal lost their military strength. Tripura kings managed to acquire large
tracts of land. Finally in 1733, powerful Mughal army defeated Tripura Maharaja
(king) and occupied fertile plains leaving him all hilly tracts. But this
region remained powerfully a Hindu oriented land. After British took control of
Bengal, in 1871, a agent was appointed to help Maharaja in administration. Thus
this hill kingdom managed to remain independent till mid 20th century and
finally in 1947 merged as one of the state in Indian republic.
All
Tripura coins are in the Bengali script but the language used is Sanskrit.
Almost all of the coins issued by Tripura kingdom have names of their kings
together with their queens. In 1464 AD, a young prince, Ratna Manikya with help
of Rukn-ud-din Barbak Shah, a sultan of Bengal managed to gain full control
over Tripura. He issued first coins of Tripura with fixed date of Saka era 1386
(1464 AD) which are certainly far superior to neighboring Bengal coinage. Even
though Ratna Manikya minted coins in the identical weight standard of Bengal/
Mughal, they were entirely Hindu in their design and inspiration and definitely
far better artistic specimen as compared to contemporary Bengal or Mughal
coinage. Just like the Assam coins, most of the Tripura coins also had a
carving of the lion, (vahana of goddess Durga) on obverse and legends on
reverse in Bengali script. But the most striking feature of Ratna Manikya's
coinage is the name of his Queen, Laksmi Mahadevi, on the coin. This became a
permanent practice among all successive kings. In the whole numismatic history
of this subcontinent there are only five instances where the Queen's name is
inscribed on the coin along with the King. The
reason behind this is mostly the predominance of the Queen at that particular
phase of time. But in the case of Ratna Manikya there is no evidence of the
Queen exerting special power. Neither the numismatists nor the social
scientists could explain this unusual phenomenon. To know more read:
