Legitimization Process in Tripuri State Formation: Accommodating Sanskritization & Primordial Culture

Abstract

Researchers since the second half of the 20th Century have been emphasizing on the importance of legitimization as a causative behind early state formation. The present paper tries to examine the way the Tripuri kingship and the Tripura kingdom acquired legitimacy. Like similar other early states of India (including North East India) and South East Asia, sanskritization played its part as a legitimizing ideology in this early state too. Bestowing the kṣatriya status upon the Māṇikya kings, building Hindu temples, digging ponds, donating lands to the Brahmins, patronage given to the Bengali and, to a lesser extent, Sanskrit languages, etc, are instances of this process. However, one unique feature of the legitimization process in Tripura was the co-existence of the Hindu and primordial/tribal beliefs, and this is the most important theme of the present paper.