A
Day at an Indian Governor’s Palace: Tripura Raj Bhaban
Sachi
G. Dastidar
It is rare to visit a
governor’s mansion whether in India or in America, even rarer if that building
is a palace – a historic palace at that. I had that exceptional opportunity
when I was able to visit the Governor’s Mansion, the Ujjayanta Palace, at the Tripura
State capital in Agartala, India. This is a real palace of a real king, built a
century ago by King, Maharaja, Birendra Kishore Manikya of Tripura. Tripura is
located in Northeast India, surrounded by Bangladesh on three sides. Partition
of India in 1947 made Tripura one of the most inaccessible states of India cut
off from rest of India’s old routes by East Pakistan, now called Bangladesh. Tripura
residents claim that theirs is one of the longest unbroken kingdoms of the
world until India abolished monarchies in 1970s and absorbed all 700 kingdoms
into India and introduced democracy as in rest of India. During my visit in
2017 Governor of Tripura was/is the Honorable Tathagata Roy. He found time to
talk with me during his busy schedule, and as he prepared for the seminal book,
Ja Chhilo Amar Desh (A tale of exodus of minorities from East Bengal [now
Bangladesh]) published by Mitra & Ghosh Publishers of Kolkata.
Wikipedia described the
palace as:
“Raj Bhavan is what was
earlier the Pushbanta Palace. It was built by Maharaja Birendra Kishore Manikya
(1909-1923). He selected a spot on a green hillock known as Kunjaban, which
stands at a distance of 1 km north of Ujjayanta palace [the former palace of
the king], for its scenic beauty for building a suburban palace for retreat.
The palace was constructed in 1917. It was named as Pushbanta Palace and it
covers a total area of 1.76 hectares.
“This palace was mute
witness to the poetic creations of many great poets including a number of
popular songs. There are well laid gardens and lawns within the palace
compound. It is now the official residence of the Governor of Tripura. The
southern side of the garden has been made open for the public and has been
named as Rabindra Kanan” [poet Rabindra garden.] (Wikipedia)
Originally the palace was
built as a resident for multiple guests of the king. Each guest unit is a
spacious suit with a bedroom, living room and several bathrooms. The Palace now
holds many formal receptions and has unique paintings, Tripura-famous
bamboo-made handicrafts, old Colonial-style furniture and a large collection of
books, especially because of the current Governor of the State, the Honorable Sri
Tathagata Roy, is not only an eminent scholar and author of books of Indian
independence as well of consequences of Indian Partition, and is a noteworthy
engineer. Raj Bhaban is guarded 24/7 by scores of security personnel in that terror-prone
state. The state is run (2017) by the Communist Party of India-Marxist
government. Inside the palace compound there is a large well-designed garden of
flowering tropical plants, a cottage for ducks, and several large evergreen
trees.
Here are some pictures
from the Governor’s Mansion.
Bamboo-made handicrafts
Governor Tathagata Roy
Impressive!
Thanks
Swapna; February 7, 2017
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