Tribes of Tripura

The Tribes of Tripura

Tripura is a relic of once powerful kingdom of the name mentioned in the Epic, Mahabharata and coming down to the Mughal period in Ain-i-Akbari. The conquests of the kings of Tripura gained for the kingdom possessions till in the 16th century its territory stretched “from the Sundarban in the west and Burma in the east”. As a result, that empire sheltered people of many races belonging to different regions and races. The tribes migrated to Tripura in search of new pastures along the rivers or of the hill away from their natural enemies.

The dialects of the tribes of Tripura belong to the big family of Tibeto – Burman languages. Most of the tribes are of Non-Aryan Stock, they are exclusively ‘Mongoloid’. Majority of the tribes of Tripura speak “Kokborok”.

The tribes of Tripura mostly belong to three district religions groups. The ‘Tripuris’ belong to Hindu religion, the Lushai, Kukis and Garos are mostly Christians. And the Chakmas and the Mogs follow Buddhism. The Tripuris, Jamatias, Noatias, Reangs and all others of 19 tribes have little variations in languages or diabetes, food habits, customs and traditions.

The tradition and history of the ‘Deb-Barmans’ are contained in the ‘Rajmala’, which is a court chronicle of Tripura’s Manikya dynasty rules, composed in a phased manner over a long span of fune. The Debbarmas of Tripura belongs to Indo-Chinese stock with an admixture of Aryan Blood. They have taken the status of ‘Kshatriyas’ and claim themselves as ‘Chandrabanshiya’.
The 19 tribes of Tripura are  :

1. Bhil 2. Bhutia 3. Chaimal 4.Chakma 5. Garo 6. Halam 7. Jamatia 8. Khasia 9.
Kuki 10. Lepcha 11. Lushai 12. Mog 13. Munda 14. Noatia 15. Orang 16. Reang
17. Santhal 18. Tripuri 19. Uchai