Rangamati

Rangamati, later called Udaipur, was the capital of the Manikya kings of Tripura on the Gomati River. Royal palaces, temples and great tanks gave the city its character. Its most revered shrine is the temple of Tripura Sundari, dedicated to the goddess and counted among the sacred Shakti pithas.

King Dhanya Manikya built the Tripura Sundari temple in 1501. Tradition tells that the goddess instructed him in a dream to establish her worship on the hilltop. The shrine’s square chamber and roof combine local Bengali forms with a royal cult that drew devotees from beyond the kingdom. A smaller image of the goddess was traditionally carried by the kings on campaigns. In 1567 the army commander Gopi Prasad seized the throne as Uday Manikya and renamed the capital Udaipur. Later rulers continued to endow temples and excavate tanks around the city. In 1760 Krishna Manikya moved the capital to Old Agartala, but the older royal city retained its temples and religious importance.