Agartala, Oct. 29: Hectic work is on in Agartala museum to install a special gallery for royal paintings. The gallery will feature 25 invaluable oil paintings of Tripura’s erstwhile princely rulers as well as of important occasions like coronation of last prince Kirit Bikram Kishore Manikya and his father and last king Bir Bikram Kishore Manikya (1923-1947).

Sources in the museum said of the 25 oil paintings, specially prepared for the royal house by experts of the erstwhile Burn and Shefferd Company, 15 would be restored in the first phase by experts of Calcutta’s Victoria Memorial. “All necessary chemicals have arrived in Agartala and work is on in full swing,” a source said. The oil paintings were getting damaged because of lack of preservative measures.

The royal painting gallery is being set up by artisans of Purbasha, a state government undertaking for handloom and bamboo and cane handicraft.

Sources said after the completion of the ongoing work in the new capital complex, the Assembly would be shifted there and the museum would be shifted to Ujjayanta Palace in a few years time. The wheel of history seems to have turned a full circle for the Left Front in Tripura known for their stridently critical view of the state’s royal history.

There was a time when the Marxists lost no opportunity of lashing out at the state’s erstwhile princely rulers for their alleged failure to bring about socio-cultural and economic development of tribal subjects.

After the Assembly was shifted to Ujjayanta Palace, abode of Tripura’s Manikya dynasty rulers in the heart of Agartala, the then leader of the Opposition and CPM stalwart Nripen Chakraborty gave a rousing speech on the opening day’s session, painting Tripura’s princely rulers as tyrants.

Even as royal scion Purnendu Kishore Debbarman, posted then as Assembly secretary, sat crestfallen, Chakraborty described in gory detail how the rebellious Reang tribal leader Ratanmoni Chowdhury had been brutally murdered within the palace. But the Marxists appear to have learnt a lesson with the passage of time that tribals of the state continue to view the state’s royal past with pride despite their political allegiance to the Marxists.

In the bipartite peace accord signed by the government with All-Tripura Tribal Force militants on August 23, 1993 it was agreed that Ujjayanta Palace would be preserved as a heritage site and the Assembly would be shifted from there.