India's most isolated state capital — a forgotten royal city surrounded by Bangladesh
Agartala is the capital of Tripura, India's third-smallest state, which is almost entirely surrounded by Bangladesh on three sides. The city was the seat of the Manikya dynasty for 500 years, and their royal palace — the Ujjayanta Palace, built in 1901 in a blend of Mughal and European styles — now houses the state museum and forms the heart of the city. Tripura has the country's second-highest rate of forest cover, and the state's forests contain Bengal tigers, elephants, clouded leopards, and a distinctive indigenous culture. The Unakoti rock carvings — giant faces cut into cliff faces over…
Tripura was an independent kingdom ruled by the Manikya dynasty from the 14th century, one of the longest-reigning royal dynasties in South Asia. The kingdom maintained its independence during the Mughal Empire, though it paid tribute to the Mughals, and was never conquered by the British — it remained a princely state until 1949. The partition of British India in 1947 was catastrophic for Tripura: the new border with East Pakistan (now Bangladesh) cut off its rail and road connections to the rest of India, and the massive influx of Bengali Hindu refugees nearly tripled the population overnig…