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Agra
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Agra is a
medieval city situated on the banks of the river Yamuna. It is
generally accepted that Sultan Sikandar Lodi, the Ruler of Delhi
Sultanate founded it in the year 1504. After the sultan's death
the city passed on to his son Sultan Ibrahim Lodi. He ruled his
Sultanate from Agra until he fell fighting to Babur in the First
battle of Panipat fought in 1526.
In the year 1556, the great Hindu warrior, Hemu Vikramaditya
also known as Hem Chander Vikramaditya won Agra as Prime
Minister cum Chief of Army of Adil Shah of Afgan Sur Dynasty.
The commander of Humayun / Akbar's forces in Agra was so scared
of Hemu that he ran away from Agra without the fight. This was
Hemu's 21st continuous win, who later on won Delhi also and had
his coronation at Purana Qila in Delhi and re-established his
Kingdom and the Vikramaditya Dynasty in North India. |
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The golden age
of the city began with the Mughals. It was known then as
Akbarabad and remained the capital of the Mughal Empire under
Emperor Akbar, Jahangir and Shah Jahan. Shah Jahan later shifted
his capital to Shahjahanabad in the year 1649.
Since Akbarabad was one of the most important cities in India
under the Mughals, it witnessed a lot of building activity.
Babar, the founder of the Mughal dynasty laid out the first
formal Persian garden on the banks of river Yamuna. The garden
is called the Aram Bagh or the Garden of Relaxation. His
grandson Akbar raised the towering ramparts of the Great Red
Fort besides making Agra, a center for learning arts, commerce
and religion. Akbar also built a new city on the outskirts of
Akbarabad called Fatehpur Sikri. This city was built in the form
of a Mughal military camp in stone.
His son Jahangir had a love of gardens and flora and fauna and
laid many gardens inside the Red Fort or Laal Kila. Shah Jahan
known for his keen interest in architecture gave Akbarabad its
most prized monument, The Taj Mahal. Built in loving memory of
his wife Mumtaz Mahal, the mausoleum was completed in 1653.
Shah Jahan later shifted the capital to Delhi during his reign,
but this son Aurangzeb shifted the capital back to Akbarabad and
had his father imprisoned in the Fort there. Akbarabad remained
capital of India during the rule of Aurangzeb until he shifted
it to Aurangabad in the Deccan in 1653. After the decline of the
Mughal Empire, the city came under the influence of Marathas and
Jats and was called Agra, before falling into the hands of the
British Raj in 1803.
In 1835 when the Presidency of Agra was established by the
British, the city became the seat of government. During the
Indian rebellion of 1857 British rule across India was
threatened, news of the rebellion had reached Agra on 11 May and
on the 30th of May two companies of native infantry, the 44th
and 67th regiments, rebelled and marched to Delhi. The next
morning native Indian troops in Agra were forced to disarm, on
15 June Gwalior (which lies south of Agra) rebelled. By 3 July
the British were forced to withdraw into the fort. Two days
later a small British force at Sucheta were defeated and force
to withdraw, this lead to a mob sacking the city. However the
rebels moved onto Delhi which allowed the British to restore
order by the 8th of July. Delhi fell to the British in
September, the following month rebels who had fled Delhi along
with rebels from Central India marched on Agra - but were
defeated. After this British rule was again secured over the
city until the independence of India in 1947.
Agra has birth place of religion like Din-i-Ilahi, which
flourished during the rein of Akbar & Radhaswami Faith which has
around two million follower worldwide. |
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of Interest |
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Taj Mahal
Agra's Taj Mahal is one of the most famous
buildings in the world, the mausoleum of Shah
Jahan's favorite wife, Mumtaz Mahal. It is one
of the New 7 Wonders of the world, and one of
three World Heritage Sites in Agra, the others
being Agra Fort and Fatehpur Sikri.
Completed in 1653 CE., the Taj Mahal is believed
to have been built by the Mughal Badshah (king)
Shah Jahan as the final resting place for his
beloved wife, Mumtaz. Finished in marble, it is
perhaps India's most fascinating and beautiful
monument. This perfectly symmetrical monument
took 22 years (1630-1652) of hard labour and
20,000 workers, masons and jewellers to build
and is set amidst landscaped gardens. Built by
the Persian architect, Ustad Isa, the Taj Mahal
is on the bank of |
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the Yamuna River. It can be observed like a
mirage from the Agra Fort from where Emperor
Shah Jahan stared at it, for the last eight
years his life as a prisoner of his son
Aurangzeb. It is a masterpiece of symmetry,
seeming to be floating in the air from a
distance, and each revealed as an illusion
experienced as one enters through the main gate.
Verses of the Holy Koran are inscribed on it and
at the top of gate 22 small domes, signifying
the number of years the monument took to build.
The Taj Mahal was built on a marble platform
that stands above a sandstone one. The most
elegant dome of the Taj, with a diameter of 60
feet (18 m), rises 80 feet (24 m) over the
building and directly under the dome is the tomb
of Mumtaz Mahal. Shah Jahan's tomb was erected
next to hers by his son Aurangzeb. Fantastic
inlay works using semi-precious stones decorate
the interiors.
Opening Times: 6 A.M. to 7.30 P.M. (closed
Fridays) |
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Agra Fort
Another world heritage site in Agra. Agra's
dominant structure, the Agra Fort (sometimes
called the Red Fort), was built by Akbar in
1565. Be Noted that a Stone Plate located at the
Gate of Fort describes it to be built before
1000 and later renovated by Akbar. The red
sandstone fort was renovated and converted into
a palace during Shah Jahan's time, and reworked
extensively with marble and pietra dura inlay.
Notable buildings in the fort include the Pearl
Mosque, the Diwan-e-Am and Diwan-e-Khas (halls
of public and private audience), Jehangir's
Palace, Khaas Mahal, Sheesh Mahal (mirrored
palace), and Musamman Burj.
The great Mughal Emperor Akbar commissioned the
construction of the Agra Fort in 1565 CE.,
although additions were made till the time of
his grandson Shah Jahan |
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The forbidding exteriors of this fort hide an
inner paradise. The fort is crescent shaped,
flattened on the east with a long, nearly
straight wall facing the river. It has a total
perimeter of 2.4 k.m., and is ringed by double
castellated ramparts of red sandstone punctuated
at regular intervals by bastions. A 9 mt. wide
and 10 mt. deep moat surround the outer wall.
Shivaji visited Agra fort as per the "Purandar
Treaty" entered into with Mirza Raja Jaisingh to
met Aurangzeb in the Diwan-i-khas. In the
audience he was deliberately placed behind men
of lower rank. Insulted Shivaji stormed out of
the imperial audience and was confined to Jai
Sing's quarters on 12th May 1666. Fearing the
dungeons and execution, in a famously sweet
legend, he escaped on the 17th of August 1666. A
heroic equestrian statue of Shivaji has been
erected outside the fort.
The fort standing as a typical example of the
Mughal architecture.It shows how the North
Indian style of fort construction differentiated
from that of the South.In South majority of the
beautiful forts were built on the sea beds like
the one at Bekal in Kerala. |
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Fatehpur Sikri
The Mughal Emperor Akbar built Fatehpur Sikri
about 35 km from Agra, and moved his capital
there. Later abandoned, the site displays a
number of buildings of significant historical
importance. A World Heritage Site, it is often
visited by tourists to Agra. The name of the
place came after Mughal Emperor Babur defeated
Rana Sanga in a battle at a place called Sikri
(about 40 km from Agra). Then Mughal Emperor
Akbar wanted to make Fatehpur Sikri his head
quarters. So he built this majestic fort. But
due to shortage of water he had to ultimately
move his headquarters to Agra Fort.
Buland Darwaza or the loft gateway was built by
the great Mughal emperor, Akbar in 1601 CE. at
Fatehpur Sikri. Akbar built the Buland Darwaza
to commemorate his |
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victory over Gujarat. The Buland Darwaza is
approached by 42 steps. The Buland Darwaza is
53.63 m high and 35 meters wide. Buland Darwaza
is the highest gateway in the world and an
astounding example of the Mughal architecture.
The Buland Darwaza or the magnificence gateway
is made of red and buff sandstone, decorated by
carving and inlaying of white and black marble.
An inscription on the central face of the Buland
Darwaza throws light on Akbar's religious broad
mindedness, here is an inscription one on the
monument which is a message from Jesus advising
his followers not to consider this world as
their permanent home. |
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Itmad-Ud-Daulah's Tomb
Empress Nur Jehan built Itmad-Ud-Daulah's Tomb,
sometimes called the Baby Taj, for her father,
Ghias-ud-Din Beg, the Chief Minister of Emperor
Jahangir. Located on the left bank of the Yamuna
river, the mausoleum is set in a large cruciform
garden criss-crossed by water courses and
walkways. The mausoleum itself is set on a base
about 50 meters square and about 1 meter high.
The mausoleum is about 23 meters square. On each
corner are hexagonal towers, about 13 meters
tall. Small in comparison to many other Mughal-era
tombs, it is sometimes described as a jewel box.
Its garden layout and use of white marble,
pietra dura, inlay designs and latticework
presage many elements of the Taj Mahal.The walls
are white marble from Rajasthan encrusted with
semi-precious stone decorations - cornelian,
jasper, lapis lazuli, onyx and topaz in
images of cypress trees and wine |
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bottles, or more elaborate decorations like cut
fruit or vases containing bouquets. Light to the
interior passes through delicate jali screens of
intricately carved white marble.
Many of Nur Jahan's relatives are interred in
the mausoleum. The only asymmetrical element of
the entire complex is that the cenotaphs of her
father and mother have been set side-by-side, a
formation replicated in the Taj Mahal. |
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Sikandra (Akbar's tomb)
Sikandra, the last resting place of the Mughal
Emperor Akbar the Great, is on Delhi-Agra
Highway, is only 13 kilometers from the Agra
Fort. Akbar's tomb reflects the completeness of
his personality. The vast, beautifully carved,
red-ochre sandstone tomb with deers, rabbits and
langoor monkeys is set amidst a lush garden.
Akbar himself planned his own tomb and selected
a suitable site for it. To construct a tomb in
one's lifetime was a Tartary custom which the
Mughals followed religiously. Akbar's son
Jahangir completed the construction of this
pyramidal tomb in 1613. |
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