Rajmala

Rajmala (Bengali: রাজমালা) is a chronicle of the Kings of Tripura, written in Bengali verse in the 15th century under Dharma Manikya I.

Contents

Rajmala gives an account of the mythological origin of the kings of Tripura, tracing the genealogy of the ruling king to the Lunar Dynasty as the 149th king since Chandra (the Moon, treated as the founder of the dynasty). It also states that the ancient name of Tripura (Twipra) was Kirat, after the brother of Puru who was banished to the Eastern provinces by his father Yayati.

Reportedly, the Bengali version was composed by the pandits Sukreshwar and Baneshwar of the royal court based on the recitations by the royal priest Dhurlabhendra Chantai of an oral tradition in the Tripuri language.

Royal genealogy

The Rajmala presents a list of 149 kings of Twipra as of 1431. The first king of the chronicle is Chandra, the Moon himself; the seventh is Druhyu, one of the sons of Yayati, a Lunar dynasty in mythology. The 46th king is called Tripur (Tripura) as a kind of mythological eponymous ancestor of the Sanskritic name of the kingdom. The list of historical kings begins with the 145th king, Ratna Fa (fl. 1280). He was the first to assume the title Manikya and as such can be considered the founder of the Manikya Dynasty.