The Origin of Tripuri People

 Pre-Civilization:

Before the evolution to modern Homo sapiens, there were many human like monkey named anthropoid apes like orang otang, gorilla, chimpanzee etc. Then evolved to Homo erectus who was more close to modern human than monkeys. These Homo erectus were deferent from human by being small brain size, they were capable of using different tools made of stones, woods, bones, horns of animals etc. These were used for the purpose of hunting, gathering foods. Some of these types of hominids were Peking man, Neanderthal man etc.

Ancient Civilizations:

 There were four major civilizations in the world, all of which were founded in Asia. These were: Chinese, Egyptian, and Mesopotamia and Indus civilization. All the civilizations were interrupted by unknown circumstance other than Chinese civilization which is continuing till date.

Indus civilization:

The civilization of Chinese, Egyptian and Mesopotamia were of homogenous group of people, where as the Indus civilization was found to be comprised of heterogeneous group of human race. The skulls found of Harappa and Mahenjo-daro belonged to proto-australoid, Mongoloid, Mediterranean and Alpine races. This clearly proved that the mongoloid were also part of the Indus civlisation. The proto-australoid were ancestor of modern day's Santal, Kol, Bhil, Munda etc. tribes of central India, Mediterranean were ancestor of modern day's Tamil, Telegu, etc. but no skull was found of from the site of excavation belonging to Aryan people.

Who are the descendants of mongoloid living during Indus civilization in present day in India? These are none other than the present day's indo-mongoloid people or the Kirata or the Borok race living in India namely, Himalyan mongoloid tribes, Kinnours, Spitian, Lahuli, Nepalese, Koch, Mech, Bodo, Rabha, Garo, Tiwas, Dimasa, Kachhari, Karabi, Tripuri etc.

Where from the Kiratas had migrated:

China civilization Dadiwan culture of flourished between 8000-7000 years before present time. According to the Chinese legend the founder of Chinese civilization is Taihao Fasi, a legendary god in ancient Chinese civilization. Similarly our legend says Danghai Fa (Taihao Fasi) is the founder of Borok people. From this area a group of Chinese people migrated to the head water of Yangti river. After settlement in this area because of in fight a group of people migrated along the route of Sindu river under the leader of Donghorfa and settled civilization at Harappa around 6000 years ago.

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Tracing the Origin of Kirata/Borok race and Tripuri people:

The Harappa civilization was of multi racial and multi ethnic one. The Kirata or the Borok race migrated in the Indus civilization site in the route of Khyber pass. They founded the Indus civilization under the king or leader of Donghorfa in the valley of Indus or Sindu river, called Harappa city. The mongoloid were most probably the ruler of the city by virtue if their past civilization at Dadiwan in china and their unconquerable nature.

Origin of the word Sindu or Indus river:

It is fact that the India or Indus or the Hindu had derived from the word Sindu river. But the Persian pronounced it as Hindu and the Greek/European as Indus. But what is the origin or root word of Sindu river? It has derived form the Kirata or Borok word of Chinti which means river of china people. Then it modified to Chinti>Sindi. So we can trace route like this Chinti> Chindi> Sindi>Sindu> Indus> India. Similar example still exist in the Kachhar district of Assam in the name race as Borak river which was earlier Borok twima.

Origin of Harappa word:

According to Tripuri legends passed through generations the first Father and mother of Borok people vis-à-vis the human race were Donghorfa and Donghorma, or also pronounced as Dangaima Dangaifa. The Aryan people could not pronounce it properly so the Donghorfa was split in to two words dong+horfa, the dong word was omitted and Horfa was misspelled and mispronounced in to Harappa, that is Horfa>Harappa. If we look at the history of Tripura, the kings of Tripura were titled as Fa till the Ratnafa who took title of Manikya. For example Muchungfa, Khichungfa, Rajafa, Achongfa etc. So it was this Donghorfa from which the Harappa had originated. In India none other than kings of Tripura took the title of Fa. It is one of the proofs of Borok race's king ruling the Harappa civilization and naming the city after the king's name. similar example exist in the name of most of cities/ towns of Tripura, Amarpur, Udaipur, Kalyanpur Dharma nagar, Agartala (Agarfa) etc.

More Proofs of Kiratas living in the Indus valley:

By the name of rivers in Indus valley:

There were many rivers that passed through the Indus civilization. According to famous ethnologist Cunningham any river whose name ends with ti or di indicates that it was once inhabited by Sino-Tibetan race. Most of the river name of Indus valley were in Borok/Kirata origin, for examples the ‘Ravi river' was earlier Rawa-ti, ‘Bias river' was Nyang-ti, ‘satlez' was-Zong-ti, ‘Para river' was Para-ti, Saraswati was Solsolti, Gomati was Gomati, Jammu tawi was Jomuti/Somti, Tapti etc. It clearly proofs that once in the ancient time these valleys were inhabited by Sino-Tibetan or Borok race. On the contrary there is no river whose name begins or ends with ti or di in the southern part of India, beyond the Bindhya parbat, which had never been inhabited by the Borok race.

By the name of place around Indus valley:

There are many places in the north India and sub-Himalayan area whose names are indication that the area had once been inhabited by the Indo-mongoloid races ‘Bodo/borok' branch. Prof. Suniti Kr. Chatterjee in his famous book of Kirat-Jana-Kriti mentioned that there was a city of Kiradu, now ruined, with its 27 temple in the western border of Rajasthan near the Indus civilization site. It means that the city was inhabited and founded by Kirata people. There was also a hamlet named ‘hathma' or ‘hatma' meaning wide land in Tripuri language, suggestive of Boro/k people's inhabitation in the Indus valley region. The capita city of India, Delhi is also considered to be derivatives of Kirata /Borok word dwi-lili>Dilli. There are plenty of similar examples in Assam like Dibrugor, Dihong, Digboi Dimapur, and many more.

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Name of rivers and Places in the Sub-Himalayan region:

There are numerous examples that proves that Borok race once lived in the Himalyan region. Places name: Dehradoon>Di-ran-doong, Teheri>Tiyari, Kampti fall >Kapti > Kaptwi, Khumbu valley>Khumuk valley, Tripura Sundari Temple in Kulu etc.

Rivers Name: Bhagirathi>Bagroti, Gangutri>Gungti, Yamunatri>Yungti, Tista>Twisuta, Tursa>Twiursa, Riang twima, Terai>Twirai etc. These rivers flows from the Uttrakhand to North Bengal in sequences.

 Anthropological evidences:

There are many ethnological evidences that there was once habitation of Borok or Kirata race in the Indus valley. If through research and search are being carried out, there will be definite traces of Borok race in the Pakistan around the Indus area even now. The Kinnours, Lahuli etc. are still living in the Himachal Pradesh, who are none but Tibeto-Burman origin and are the people of Borok race who were left back at the time of migration. Similarly there are Rungsa who are still living in the Pithoragarh district of Uttaranchal whose mother tongue had been clubbed with Tripura language in the 1991 census and who claim to be Tibeto-Burman descendant. This Rungsa is none but the previous form of Reangsa of Tripuri Sub-tribe, who were left behind at the times of migration. There are many small tribes of Tibeto-burman race who are scattered in the Himalayan region.

Route of migration of Tripuri people in the present state:

From the Dadiwan area of China a group migrated to head water of Yangtze river around 7000 years ago. Then our ancestors migrated from this Yangtze river head to the site of Indus or Chindi river valley through Khyber pass around 6000 years ago, that is 4000 BC and founded the Indus valley civilization along with Proto-australoid and Mediterranean people. This civilization flourished between 4000-1900 BC. The Kirata or indo-mongoloid might have been the ruler as history proves that mongoloid race founded most of mighty empire in the past. When the Aryan nomadic tribes invaded Indus valley riding on the horse, the Borok race could not resist them and had to migrate towards the east along the path of sub-Himalyan region. Where as the Dravidian migrated to the south and the Australoid migrated to the east and middle of India. The Borok or Kirata migrated through Punjab, Jammu, Delhi, Himachal Pradesh, Uttaranchal, Nepal, north Bengal, Assam, Dimapur, Kachhar and finally reached in the present state of Tripura 1400 years ago, and then up to Coast of Bay of Bengal at Chittagong hill tract. On the way of migration many tribes were left behind who in the course of time formed a distinct tribes, but there linguistic and ethnic relation still exist. The descendant of Borok race are Kinnours, Rungsa, Koch, Mech, Hajong, Rabha, Bodo, Garo, Tiwas, Chutia, Karbi, Dimasa, Kachhari, and Tripuri.

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Kirata in Ancient Religious Text, Epic and Mythology:

Rajmala mentions that Tripuri used to be known as Kirata in older times. The root word of Kirata is not clear, it may be Kwrak, meaning strong, or Kirithaya>Kiritya>Kirata what is fearless. Kirata is mentioned in the Yajur and Atharva Veda. Similarly the Kirata is mentioned along with Huna, Andhra, Pulinda, Pulkasa, Abhira, Sumbha, Yavana, members of the Khasa races in Srimad Bhagavatam. The Kirata is mentioned in the Ramayan in Ayodhya kanda's sarga 15 section, with their hair tied up in knots, shining like gold and pleasant to look upon, bold enough to move under water, terrible, veritable tiger-men, so are they famed. Similarly Kirata tribe was mentioned in Mahabharata on the Vanaparva section 39. The Kirata had been described as golden yellow people which are the skin color of modern Tripuri, though over the thousand of year of living in present Tripura the colour had changed more yellow to Dark golden. One of the most skill full archer of that time Eklabya was none than a Kirata, Bhima's wife Hadimba was a Kirata women and Ghototkoch of Mahabharata was a Kirata king, apart from the facts mentioned in the Rajmala that Tripuri king Trilochana had participated in the mythological Kurukshetra war.

 Who are Chandra dynasty descendant?

It is generally known that Chandra was a Aryan king and the modern days Rajputs of north India are the descendant of the king Chandra. But we have to trace the root scientifically with available historical records and explain it logically.

1)      It is accepted by the historian fraternity that the Mahabharata war occurred around 1400 BC. Yudhisthir was the king from Pandav and the king of Tripura participated in favour of Duryudhan. According to Rajmala records King Trilochana or Subrai is contemporary of Yudhisthir. He is 47^th in succession from Chandra; Yudhisthir was also around the same in the in succession from Chandra. If we take average 25 years of generation age then 46X25=1150 years. Now 1400+1150=2550 years that is King Chandra was ruling India around 2250BC. On the contrary it is historical fact that the Aryan came in India between 1700-1500 BC, so there was no Aryan before 1700 BC in India, than how can the Chandra be Aryan king?? That means Chandra was non-Aryan king, not as claimed most of people.

2)      On the other side, the Rajputs as we know today are descendent of Scythic tribes, who came from central Asia and invaded India around 400 BC. Mulchand Chauhan, in the book of ‘Scythic origin of Rajputs Race' stated taking the reference of ethnographer Col Todd "It is a singular fact that there is no available date beyond the 4th century for any of the great Rajput families, all of whom are brought from the North. This was the period of one of the grand irruptions of the Getic races from Central Asia-'. So the present Rajputs of Rajasthan and other Kshatriya can not be the descendant of Chandra who ruled India 2550 BC. On the contrary the ancestor of Tripuri king, Chandra who was there at around to be a Kirata king is plausible from the evidences and the historical facts avail able with us.

3)      Origin of word Chandra: It is a proven fact that many Kirata words had been Sanskritised and absorbed in the pool of Sanskrit word. For example one of the synonyms for water in Sanskrit is Towi, which is Bodo/borok word origin. There are many words absorbed but needs to be researched. There is one more example how indo-mongoloid name had been changed to Sanskrit name. The famous Kushanas kings were Mongoloid Yueh-chi tribe form frontier of China, which had been Sanskritised from Kuei-shang>Kushan in India. The mightiest dynasty of India Mughal derived its name from Mongol (Persian Mughal), Sukrai Ochai converted to Sukracharya. Similarly the word Chandra had derived from Chwngtoro means great Chinese, Chwnngtoro>Chongdro> Chandra.

4)      Pandavs were Mongoloid. The claim of Pandav and Kaurav as Aryan descendant is a doubtful logical arguments, rather favour to be mongoloid origin. 1) Polyandry among Pandav (women was not common among Aryans, not found in any other history or mythology. But it is very common and still in practice among the Kinnours, Lahuli, and Spitian Himalayan mongoloid tribes. 2)  Bhima drank blood of Dushasan is suggestive of barbarian mongoloid. 3) Kunti>Kungti, Dhrupati>Durupti are suggestive of Borok/ Bodo name like Kosomti, Kufuti, Chikonti, Khumbati etc. 4) A Mongolian tribe in the Himachal Pradesh clams to be descendant of Duryudhan 5) After the war the Pandavs went to heaven where a dog is supposed to have lead them, indicating  by that their home was at Himalayan hills. The Pandav were supposed to have been burnt in Laksha Griha which is nothing but thatch which is abundant in hill region of Himalaya, that means they were  inhabited some where in Himalayan. So these facts prove that the war of Mahabharata was between Mongoloid brothers.

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Aryan Invaded Indus Civilization:

The Aryan invaded India some time around 1700 BC, the Indus civilization ruined around same time. There were plenty of examples that the Aryan destroyed the Indus civilization and plundered the citizens, the Australoid, mongoloid of Indus valley. There are several wars mentioned in Rig-Veda, Indra was the strongest king of Aryan who destroyed many forts, so he was termed as Purander in Veda. The excavation of Mahenjo-daro and Harappa had discovered many of human skeleton buried in one place indicate that these people were buried in one place after being killed. Finding of skeleton of children further confirms that Indus civilization was plundered and destroyed by external enemy. So the citizen of Indus valley i.e., the Austric race was forced to migrate to wards east and middle of India, Dravidian in the south and the Mongoloid in the north and north east of India.

Sanskrit name in Mythology:

Most of the names of mythological period were meaning less even in Sanskrit. Many Bodo wards have been absorbed in Sanskrit and Sanskritised like, Towi(Twi), Bokkho(bwkha), Ling(lwi), Ahong(Ang) ma(ma means no) Mukkho (mwkhang) Samudru (som-dru) Raja (Rai-cha>raja, becoming head of tribes) and the list goes on. The following words seems like more of the Kirata origin, like the Daksh, Yayati, Druhyu, Nahus, Ayu, Babhru, Brisaparva, Drun, Kunti, Dhrupati, etc. These names indicate that it had been corrupted form the Borok/Bodo words to suite the Aryan tongue. So the mythological and historical people were of Borok race.

Evidence of Borok and Australoid people living together in the past:

The Kirata (Borok) and the Sautal (Santal) are from two different stocks and linguistically belong to two separate groups. So there is no chance of similarity in words. But on the contrary it is surprising that two groups have many common words, indicating that in the past they had lived together in the early civilization, so there was borrowing of words from one another, and cultural exchanges among them. Here are some of the example of Tripuri, Bodo and Santhali words.

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 Great man of Borok or Kirata race

•         Dangaifa tai Dangaima

•         Balmiki Muni-writer of Ramayan

•         Sukrai ochai or Sukracharya

•         The Pandav and Kaurav

•         Lord Buddha

•         Kuing Shang eba Kusan

•         Yayati

•         Brishaparva

•         Tripur

•         Subrai eba Trilochan-Twiluson

•         Ghotot Koch Bhim's son-fought for Panch Pandav

•         Bhagdatta-Bodo king At Kurushetra war

•         Bhaskar Barman-King of Bodo during Hiuen Tsang visit

•         Nara Narayan-Koch king who built Kamakhya Temple of Guwahati

•         Dhanya Manikya-only king expanded Tripura Boundary beyond Burma

•         Tripura Sundari wife of Sengthumfa who fought and defeated Bengal sultan

•         Rai Kwchak Senapati-of Dhanya mankikya who led Burma war

•         Durlabhendra Chantai-who wrote Rajmala

•         Vijay Manikya-extended Tripura boundary to Jayantia, present Meghalay

•         Dharma Manikya-One of greatest king

•         Amar Manikya-Fought with Magh or Arakan king

•         S D Burman

•         R D Burman

Bibliography:

1)      Rajmala, Kali Prasanna Sen.

2)      Ujjayanta, Centenary Souvenir Palace.

3)      Folklore of Assam, Jogesh Das.

4)      Uttaranchal ke Adivasi, Devendra Upadhyay.

5)      Bodo and Tripuri Word, Maheshwar Narjari.

6)      The Bodo, Mouth piece of Bodo Sahitya Sabha-2002.

7)      ODBL, S.K. Chatterjee

8)      Kirata Jana-kriti, S.K. Chatterjee.

9)      Kokborok Lipi Bitorko.

10)  Census Report of Tripura 1901.

11)  Census of India 1991, Language Series1.

12)  Census Report 2001.

13)  We Tamil, P. Sangrapillai.

14)   Austric Civilization of India, Nityananda Hembram.

15)  Yakhwtwng-2000, Souvenir.

16)  Himachal Pradesh, Hari Krishna Mittoo.

17)  Brahmaputra, Arup Kumar Dutta.

18)  Brunch: Oct-15 2006.

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