Tripura  is a state in North-East India. Tripura is surrounded by Bangladesh on the north, south and west. The Indian states of Assam and Mizoram lie to the east. The capital is Agartala and the main languages spoken are Bengali and Kokborok (also known as Tripuri). It was formerly an independent Tripuri kingdom and was merged with independent India on 15 October 1949 by the Tripura Merger Agreement. It was also known as Hill Tippera (anglicized version of Tipra) during the British India period and has a history of over 2500 years and 186 Kings

The Origin of Tripura has been a controversial issue. Several theories have been put forward by many people. Some of them are

• The origin of the word Tripura is attributed to the legendary tyrant king of Tripura, Tripur. According to legend, Tripur was the 39th descendant of Druhya, who was a descendant of Yayati, one of the lunar race kings. He was so powerful that he ordered his subjects to worship him as the sole God. People fled to escape his tyranny to the nearby state of Hiramba (Cachar).

• The word Tripura may have originated from Tripura Sundari - the presiding deity of the land which is famous as one of the 51 Shakti Peethas, pilgrimage centres of Shakti worshippers of Hinduism.

• According to another school of thought the name Tripura was probably given to the state in honour of the temple at Udaipur, Tripureshwari, the wife of lord Shiva.

• According to historian Kailash Chandra Singha, the word Tripura is a derivative from two different Kokborok words twi and pra. Twi means water, pra means near. It is likely that the state bears the name Tripura from this fact that in ancient time the boundaries of Tripura extended up to the Bay of Bengal when its ruler held sway from the Garo Hills to the Arakan.

• According to another belief, Tripura is a corruption of Twi-bupra. The meaning of twi is water and that of bupra is confluence. Several villages in Tripura are named after the confluence of various rivers, e.g. Twikormo, Twirisa, Twisarangchak, and Twimudul.