By Biswendu Bhattacharjee

Mata Tripureswari temple in Udaipur has stood the time for 500 long years and with it plans are afoot to celebrate this occasion with massive religious event and cultural programmes for three days from November 13 next. The completion of 500 years of Mata Tripureswari one of the 51 holiest Hindu shrines in the country, is emerging as a major event in the state. The Tripureswari temple was built by erstwhile, Tripura king Maharaja Dhanaya Manikya(1490-1520) in the year 1501 A.D. The Manikya dynasty rulers of Tripura from king Ratna Manikya(1464-90) had all been devoted Hindus. The establishment of Mata Tripureswari temple by the second king Dhanya Manikya, one of the greatest rulers of the Tripura's Manikya dynesty, had an interesting background. According to 'Rajmala' court cronical of Tripura's Manikya dynasty rulers, Maharaja Dhanya Manikya arranged for a vaastupuja ceremony( the worship of the tutelar diety of a homestead) actullay with the desire to build a Vishnu temple at the site of the present day temple. In course of beginning of the construction, one night the Raja received a divine message from devi Bhagavati in his dream. He was instructed to fetch the idol of the Goddess from Chittagong, and to install it at a new temple. Following the message, king sent his general to Chittagong in order to bring the idol. But the idol was not immediately enshrined after it was brought down from Chittagong because the construction of the temple was not completed by then. Regarding the pattern of construction of the temple, the 'Shilalipi Samagraha' states' this temple has been built in the style of the 'Joykali temple' of Kalighat. Inspite of few similarities in their style the statement cannot be accepted because the temple at Kalighat had been built 305 years after the Tripureswari temple. Thus it is obvious that the construction of the temple was not inspired by that of the Kalighat, instead, the latter had absorbed a lot from the former. The temple of Tripureswari is older than both kalighat temple as well as the temple of Kamrup kamakhya at Guwahati. Kamakhya temple was founded by the king of Koch Nara Narayan and Chilla Ray in 1565 A.D. Among the three pitha-temples in the eastern India, the temple at Udaipur is the most ancient. The Mata Tripureswari temple was renovated and repaired several time since its construction in 1501 A.D, continues to draw a large number of devotees from all over the country. The Sankaracharya of Sringeri Math in Tamilnadu Swami Jayendra Saraswati visited the temple in 1998 and perfromed puja in the temple. He was the first Sankaracharya to cross the Bramhaputra river to worship Mata Tripureswari. Apart from that, the temple has emerged as a major socio-cultural centre in the state and nobody from entire South Tripura where Udaipur is located leaves the state for any work without first offering puja in the temple.