The boundaries of the kingdom changed over the centuries. At various times, the borders reached south to the jungles of the Sundarbans on the Bay of Bengal; east to Burma; and north to the boundary of the Kamarupa kingdom in Assam. There were several Muslim invasions of the region from the 13th century onward, which culminated in Mughal dominance of the plains of the kingdom in 1733, although their rule never extended to the hill regions. The Mughals had influence over the appointment of the Tripuri kings.

Tripura became a princely state during British rule in India. The kings had an estate in British India, known as Tippera district or Chakla Roshnabad, in addition to the independent area known as Hill Tippera, the present-day state. Udaipur, in the south of Tripura, was the capital of the kingdom, until the king Krishna Manikya moved the capital to Old Agartala in the 18th century. It was moved to the new city of Agartala in the 19th century. Bir Chandra Manikya (1862–1896) modelled his administration on the pattern of British India, and enacted reforms including the formation of Agartala Municipal Corporation.

The road distance between Kolkata and Agartala before the partition was less than 350 km, and increased to 1,700 km (1,100 mi), as the route now avoided East Pakistan (although from June 2015 a bus service started from Agartala to Kolkata via Dhaka; this has been named the "Bangla Corridor"). The geopolitical isolation was aggravated by an absence of rail transport.

Since the partition of India, many Bengali Hindus have migrated to Tripura as refugees fleeing religious persecution in Muslim-majority East Pakistan, especially after 1949. Settlement by Hindu Bengalis increased during the Bangladesh Liberation War of 1971. Parts of the state were shelled by the Pakistan Army during the Indo-Pakistani War of 1971. Following the war, the Indian government reorganised the North East region to ensure effective control of the international borders – three new states came into existence on 21 January 1972: Meghalaya, Manipur, and Tripura. Before independence, most of the population was indigenous.   Ethnic strife between the Tripuri tribe and the predominantly immigrant Bengali community led to scattered violence, and an insurgency spanning decades, including occasional massacres such as the 1980 Mandai massacre. This gradually abated following the establishment of a tribal autonomous district council and the use of strategic counter-insurgency operations. Tripura remains peaceful, as of 2016. In retaliation of the communal violence against the Hindu minority in neighboring Bangladesh, mosques in several areas in Tripura were attacked from 19 to 26 October 2021.

The small isolated hillocks interspersed throughout the state are known as tillas, and the narrow fertile alluvial valleys, mostly present in the west, are called Doóng/lungas. A number of rivers originate in the hills of Tripura and flow into Bangladesh.The Khowai, Dhalai, Manu, Juri and Longai flow towards the north; the Gumti to the west; and the Muhuri and Feni to the south west.

The lithostratigraphy data published by the Geological Survey of India dates the rocks, on the geologic time scale, between the Oligocene epoch, approximately 34 to 23 million years ago, and the Holocene epoch, which started 12,000 years ago.The hills have red laterite soil that is porous. The flood plains and narrow valleys are overlain by alluvial soil, and those in the west and south constitute most of the agricultural land.

The interspersion of bamboo and cane forests with deciduous and evergreen flora is a peculiarity of Tripura's vegetation. Grasslands and swamps are also present, particularly in the plains. Herbaceous plants, shrubs, and trees such as Albizia, Barringtonia, Lagerstroemia and Macaranga flourish in the swamps of Tripura. Shrubs and grasses include Schumannianthus dichotoma (shitalpati), Phragmites and Saccharum (sugarcane).

According to a survey in 1989–90, Tripura hosts 90 land mammal species from 65 genera and 10 orders, including such species as elephant (Elephas maximus), bear (Melursus ursinus), binturong (Arctictis binturong), wild dog (Cuon alpinus), porcupine (Artherurus assamensis), barking deer (Muntiacus muntjak), sambar (Cervus unicolor), wild boar (Sus scrofa), gaur (Bos gaurus), leopard (Panthera pardus), clouded leopard (Neofelis nebulosa), and many species of small cats and primates. Out of 15 free ranging primates of India, seven are found in Tripura; this is the highest number of primate species found in any Indian state. The wild buffalo (Bubalus arnee) is extinct now. There are nearly 300 species of birds in the state.

Tripura is an agrarian state with more than half of the population dependent on agriculture and allied activities. However, due to hilly terrain and forest cover, only 27% of the land is available for cultivation. Rice, the major crop of the state, is cultivated in 91% of the cropped area. According to the Directorate of Economics & Statistics, Government of Tripura, in 2009–10, potato, sugarcane, mesta, pulses and jute were the other major crops cultivated in the state. Jackfruit and pineapple top the list of horticultural products. Traditionally, most of the indigenous population practised jhum method of cultivation. The number of people dependent on jhum has declined over the years.

Pisciculture has made significant advances in the state. At the end of 2009–10, the state produced a surplus of 104.3 million fish seeds, primarily carp. Rubber and tea are the important cash crops of the state. Tripura ranks second to Kerala in the production of natural rubber in the country. The state is known for its handicraft, particularly hand-woven cotton fabric, wood carvings, and bamboo products. High quality timber including sal, garjan, teak and gamar are found abundantly in the forests of Tripura. Tata Trusts signed a pact with Government of Tripura in July 2015 to improve fisheries and dairy in the state.

The industrial sector of the state continues to be highly underdeveloped – brickfields and tea industry are the only two organised sectors. Tripura has considerable reservoirs of natural gas.According to estimates by Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC), the state has 400 billion metres3 reserves of natural gas, with 16 billion metres3 is recoverable. ONGC produced 480 million metres3 natural gas in the state, in 2006–07. In 2011 and 2013, new large discoveries of natural gas were announced by ONGC. Tourism industry in the state is growing – the revenue earned in tourism sector crossed ₹10 million (US$130,000) for the first time in 2009–10, and surpassed ₹15 million (US$200,000) in 2010–11. Although Bangladesh is in a trade deficit with India, its export to Tripura is significantly more than import from the state; a report in the newspaper The Hindu estimated Bangladesh exported commodities valued at about ₹3.5 billion (US$46 million) to the state in 2012, as opposed to "very small quantity" of import. Alongside legal international trade, unofficial and informal cross-border trade is rampant. In a research paper published by the Institute of Developing Economies in 2004, the dependence of Tripura's economy on that of Bangladesh was emphasised.

The economy of Tripura can be characterised by the high rate of poverty, low capital formation, inadequate infrastructure facilities, geographical isolation and communication bottlenecks, inadequate exploration and use of forest and mineral resources, slow industrialisation and high unemployment. More than 50% of the population depends on agriculture for sustaining their livelihood. However agriculture and allied activities contribution to Gross State Domestic Production (GSDP) is only 23%, this is primarily because of low capital base in the sector. Despite the inherent limitation and constraints coupled with severe resource shortages for investing in basic infrastructure, this has brought consistency progress in the quality of life and income of people cutting across all sections of society. The state government through its Tripura Industrial Policy and Tripura Industrial Incentives Scheme, 2012, has offered heavy subsidies in capital investment and transport, preferences in government procurement, waivers in tender processes and fees, yet the impact has not been much significant beyond a few industries being set up in the Bodhjungnagar Industrial Growth Center.

The Planning Commission estimates the poverty rate of all North East Indian states by using headcount ratio of Assam (the second largest state in North East India after Arunachal Pradesh). According to 2001 Planning Commission assessment, 22 percent of Tripura's rural residents were below the poverty line. However, Tripura government's independent assessment, based on consumption distribution data, reported that, in 2001, 55 percent of the rural population was below the poverty line. Geographic isolation and communication bottlenecks coupled with insufficient infrastructure have restricted economic growth of the state. High rate of poverty and unemployment continues to be prevalent.