Tripura University

Higher education in Tripura had a late start. Maharaja Bir Bikram (MBB) College, the first degree college in the State, started functioning under the University of Calcutta only in 1947. Not that there was no attempt in the past in Princely Tripura to establish any higher educational institution. As early as 1901, Radhakishore Manikya made an attempt to establish a degree college in the-then tiny capital town Agartala; but as the proposal did not fulfill the necessary requirements, it did not get approval from the Calcutta University. In 1937, Bir Bikramkishore Manikya, the last Maharaja of Tripura, had planned for establishing a college again at Agartala and an area of 254 acres of land, consisting of undulated tilla land having interposed lakes almost all around, in the eastern part of Agartala, was earmarked for that under the “Vidyapattan Scheme”. A committee under the name “Vidyapattan Governing Committee” consisting of 10 members with the Minister as its President was appointed by the Maharaja to carry out the scheme of higher education and a sum of Rs. 50,000 was placed at its disposal at the first instance. On 7 May, 1937, Maharaja Bir Bikram laid the foundation-stone of the college under the scheme. But with the outbreak of the Second World War (1939-45), the work of construction had to be abandoned.