Agartala

Agartala

 is the capital city of the Indian state of Tripura, and is one of the largest cities in northeast India. The city is governed by the Agartala Municipal Corporation. The city is the seat of the Government of Tripura. It is located on the banks of the Haora River, near the Bangladesh border, about 90 kilometres (55 mi) east of Bangladesh’s capital Dhaka and about 2,499 km (1,522 mi) from the national capital New Delhi. Agartala is being developed under the Smart Cities Mission, a flagship scheme of the Government of India.

Agartala is India’s third international internet gateway after the ones in Mumbai and Chennai.

Etymology

Agartala is a derivative of two words, namely agar, a valuable perfume and incense tree of genus Aquilaria, and the suffix tala, meaning underneath, a reference to the density of agarwood trees in the region. The agar tree is historically referred to in the story of the King Raghu who tied up his elephant’s feet to an agar tree on the banks of River Lauhitya.

History

One of the earliest kings of Tripura was Patardan B.C. 1900, long before the Manikya Dynasty. According to folklore, Chitrarath, Drikpati, Dharmapha, Loknath Jivandharan were important kings during the time of B.C. in Agartala.

In the past, Tripura served as the capital to several Hindu kingdoms. Although a timeline of the rulers has not been found, records reveal that the area has been ruled by as many as 179 Hindu rulers, starting from the mythological King Druhya to the last King of Tripura, Kirit Bikram Kishore Manikya. Tripura also came under Mughal rule. The state came under the governance of the British in 1808.

Much later the ancient capital of the then princely state ‘Swadhin Tripura’ was at Rangamati (Udaipur, South Tripura) by the bank of the river Gomati. In 1760 it was shifted by the Maharaja Krishna Chandra Manikya Bahadur (r.1829–1849) of Manikya Dynasty to present old Agartala by the bank of the river Haora/Saidra and was named ‘Haveli’. Due to frequent invasion of the Kukis and also to keep easy communication with the British Bengali, the Maharaja Krishna Chandra Manikya started the process of shifting the capital from Old Haveli to New Haveli (present Agartala) in 1849.

During the British Raj, Agartala was the capital of the ‘Hill Tippera’ state; it became a municipality in 1874–75, and in 1901 had a population of 9,513. The princely state always remained as cake piece to the British and many other invaders. For example, when Arakhan soldiers attacked the old capital of the state the king of Tripura responded by defeating the entire troop. The Agartala Municipality was established during the reign of Maharaja Bir Chandra Manikya (1862–1896) within an area of 3 square miles (8 km²) having a population of only 875 by a royal proclamation in the last part of 1871. A.W.S. Power, the first British political agent for Tipperah was also appointed as the Chairman of the Agartala Municipality in 1872 who held office from 1872 to 1873. The municipality located at the crossing of latitude N 23 –50′ and longitude E 91-17′ covering 3 km² area during that period.

Bir Bikram Kishore Debbarman is called the founder of the planned city of Agartala. He had gone on a tour to the United Kingdom and was so impressed at the architecture that he started planning similar township in Agartala. During the 1940s the town was re-organised in a planned manner with new roads and a market building.

The estimated population of Agartala was 5,22,603 in 2014 after the municipal expansion (189,327 in the 2001 census).

From 1901 to 1971 the city did not experience notable progress in infrastructure development with only an 8 km² of area but 1981 saw Agartala expanding and increasing its connectivity as well as businesses in various fields, the city area expanding to 58.84 km², greater Agartala is planned as of 2011 with an additional of 92 km². Agartala had a different type of history from the earlier times of the epic days as it was a princely state and was connected with Bangladesh. Though the East India Company had not arrived in the princely capital of the state but they always remained in a certain in capturing and ruling. The East India Company had set their base of North East India in the Assam province with Shillong as their capital.

The Nobel laureate Indian (Bengali) poet Rabindranath Tagore or Robindronath Thakur visited the city multiple times and built a house that still exists. The historical book Rajmala contains incidents and historical stories of Agartala.

Geography and climate

Agartala is situated on a plain land along the Haora River, although the city also extends to the low-lying hills on its northern parts.

Agartala has a monsoon influenced humid subtropical climate (Köppen Cwa) just short of being hot enough to qualify as a borderline tropical savanna (Aw)/tropical monsoon (Am) climate. Large amounts of rain fall all year except during the dry “winter” or “cool” season. The city experiences long, hot and wet summers, lasting from April to October. Average temperatures are around 28 °C or 82.4 °F, fluctuating with rainfall. There is a short, mild winter from mid-November to early March, with mostly dry conditions and average temperatures around 18 °C (64 °F). The best time to visit is from September to February. Summers are long and extremely hot with much sunlight and warm days. Rain is very common in this season and the city can be found flooded. The Haora River flows through the city and remains flooded with water during the time of monsoon