Agra [1] is the city of the Taj Mahal, in the north Indian state of
Uttar Pradesh , some 200 km from Delhi .
Agra has three UNESCO World Heritage sites, the Taj Mahal and the Agra
Fort in the city and Fatehpur Sikri nearby. There are also many other
buildings and tombs from Agra's days of glory as the capital of the
Mughal Empire.
The city has little else to recommend it. Pollution, especially smog
and litter, is rampant and travellers are pestered by swarms oftouts
and hawkers at every monument, mosque,temple or palace. That said, the
sites are some of the wonders of the world and no trip to India is
complete without at least one visit to the Taj.
[ edit ] Understand
While Agra's heyday was as the capital of the Mughal empire between
1526 and 1658, the city was founded much earlier.The earliest
reference to Agra is in the ancient epic, the Mahabharata, while
Ptolemy was the first person to call it by its modern name. The
recorded history of Agra begins around the 11th century, and over the
next500 years, the city changed hands between various kings, both
Hindu and Muslim.
In 1506, Sultan Sikandar Lodi, the ruler of the Delhi Sultanate, moved
his capital from Delhi to Agra. His son Ibrahim Lodi was the last
ruler of the Lodi dynasty, as he was defeated in 1526 by Babur, the
first Mughal ruler, in the battle of Panipat. Agra fell too, and
became the capital of the Mughals, whose rule over Agra was
uninterrupted except for a brief period between 1540 and 1556. In
1540, Sher Shah Shuri overthrew Humayun became the ruler of much of
North India, including Agra. After Sher Shah Suri'sdeath his
descendants proved unequal to the task of ruling the kingdom, and
Hemu, a Hindu general of Suri became the effective ruler who would
later crown himself King HemachandraVikramaditya just as the kingdom
was facing an assault from the reinvigorated Mughals. In 1556, Hemu
would be defeated and killed in the second battle of Panipat, and the
Mughals regained Agra.
Mughals were great builders. Babur built the Aram Bagh (garden of
relaxation) modeled after the garden of paradise, where he was
eventually buried after his death. His grandson Akbar refurbished the
Agra fort and built the Fatehpur Sikri , an entire city just onthe
outskirts of Agra. He also renamed Agra after himself, and the city
was known as Akbarabad while it was in Mughal hands. Akbar's grandson
Shah Jehan would give Agra its most famous monument, the Taj Mahal ,
which is the mausoleum of his beloved wife, Mumtaz Mahal . The Taj is
constructed in white marble. It took 20 years toconstruct, and is now
universally known as a monument to love. Legend has it that Shah Jehan
wanted a replica of the Taj constructed in black marble that would be
his final resting place. There is no actual support for this theory,
but even if it were true, it would havebeen unlikely to be eventuated.
His son Aurangzeb was austere and pious, and had no time or
inclination for the ostentation of his forefathers, preferring to
spend his money on wars in South India. In any case,even during Shah
Jehan's reign, which was the period when the Mughal empire was at its
height, the construction of the Taj put a strain on the resources of
the empire and caused a min-famine around Agra. Shah Jehan was
eventually buried in the white Taj, next to his beloved Begum.
Shah Jehan, in addition to giving Agra its greatest claim to fame, was
also responsible for beginning its decline, as decided to shift his
capital to Shahjehanabad, which we now know as Old Delhi, in 1658.
Though Aurangzeb ordered a move back, this too was short lived, as he
moved his headquarters down south to Aurangabad to be focus onhis
wars. Agra declined, and so did the Mughal Empire. The city was
eventually captured by theMarathas, who renamed it back to Agra. In
1803, it came under the British, who situated the Agra Presidency
there, and when India gained independence, the city was incorporated
into the state of Uttar Pradesh, anddid not gain even the limited
honour of being the state's capital, that distinction going to Lucknow
, further east. It isnow a tourist town, known for the Taj and a
couple of other monuments.
Anyone interested in reading a novel based on the remarkable story
behind the Taj Mahal's creation should consider Beneath a Marble Sky
by John Shors. Beneath a Marble Sky is an international bestseller,
has won multiple awards, and is being made into a movie by Hollywood.
Other book (historical fiction) is The Taj by Colin De Silva.
[ edit ] Get in
Agra is 200 km southeast from Delhi and is one of the points of the
tourist's Golden Triangle of Agra- Delhi - Jaipur . Agra is also very
well connected via rail/
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