Ujjayanta Palace · Lablypedia

History

As royal palace

The original Ujjayanta Palace was built in 1862, 10 km (6 mi) away from Agartala, by King Ishan Chandra Manikya (1849–1862). It was devastated by the 1897 Assam earthquake. The current palace was built in the heart of Agartala city by Maharaja Radha Kishore Manikya between 1899 and 1901, at a then exorbitant cost of 10 lakh (1 million) rupees. It was built by Martin and Burn Co. The name "Ujjayanta" was given by poet Rabindranath Tagore. It was the principal residence of the Manikyas until Tripura's merger with the Dominion of India in October 1949.

As state assembly building

The palace was purchased from the royal family by the Government of Tripura in 1972–73 for Rs. 2.5 million. It housed the Tripura Legislative Assembly until July 2011 when the assembly moved to a new location 6 km (3.7 mi) north of Agartala.

As state museum

The palace was given seismic retrofitting to prevent possible earthquake damage, and was inaugurated as the state museum by Vice-President Mohammad Hamid Ansari on 25 September 2013.

The government of Tripura had initially planned to rename the palace as the "Tripura State Museum". The Indigenous Nationalist Party of Twipra (INPT) protested to Vice-President Ansari. Pradyot Bikram Manikya Deb Barma, pretender to the throne of Tripura, also spoke out against the planned renaming. In response, the Tripura government decided to keep the original name and to build a statue of Maharaja Radha Kishore Manikya on the museum premises. The palace received further restorations in 2023.

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Architecture

The palace was designed by Sir Alexander Martin of the Martin and Burn Company in the Indo-saracenic style, showing a mix of Mughal, Roman and British influences. The two-storied palace has three large domes, the largest of which is 86 ft (26 m) high, and which rests atop a four-storied central tower. The Ujjayanta Palace compound covers an area of approximately 1 km² (250 acres) and includes public rooms such as the throne room, durbar hall, library and reception hall.

There are two large artificial ponds on either side of the garden which is decorated with pools and fountains. The grounds cover 800 acres (3.2 km²) in the heart of Agartala.

Several Hindu temples occupy plots adjacent to Ujjayanta Palace, dedicated to Lakshmi Narayan, Uma-Maheshwari, Kali and Jagannath.

Collection

Ujjayanta Palace is a multicultural museum with emphasis on art and crafts of the state of Tripura. The museum was established on 22 June 1970 and shifted to the current premises on 25 September 2013. It is North-east India's largest museum with a "national perspective while remaining focused on Tripura and northeast India".

The museum has twenty-two display galleries. The exhibits in the museum are of sculpture, terracotta, bronze images, coins of the Tripuri kingdom, paintings and other historical items excavated from historical sites of Tripura, archaeological antiquities, historical Indian sculptures, paintings and tribal culture. The museum has 1406 collections on display which include 79 stone sculptures, 141 terracotta plaques, 774 coins of gold, silver and copper, 10 copper plate inscriptions, 9 stone inscriptions, 39 images of bronze, 102 textile items, 58 oil paintings, 63 sketches and drawings, and 197 ornaments. The sculpture collections are mostly from Udaipur, Pilak, Jolaibari, and other locations in Tripura. The new museum also showcases the customs and practices of different tribes of Northeast India. The objective of the museum is also to make it a "centre for active research and cultural activities".

The most distinctive exhibits are from Pilak, which consist of sculptures of different cultures of Hinduism and Buddhism from the period of 9th to 13th centuries. The well crafted and moulded bronze sculptures are of Mukhalinga, Avalokitesvara, Tara, and Vishnu. The terracotta exhibits are from the Pilak and Amarpur sites, and also from Bengal school of art.