FLIGHT STATUS

AGRA TRAVEL GUIDE

Agra is a city on banks of the Yamuna River in Uttar Pradesh. It finds mention in the
epic Mahabharata when it was called Agrabana, or Paradise. Ptolemy, the famous
second century A.D. geographer, marked it on his map of the world as Agra.
Tradition and legend ascribe the present city of Raja Badal Singh (around 1475 A.D.)
whose Fort, Badalgarh, Stood on or near the site of the present Fort. However, the
12th century A.D. Persian poet Salman writes of a desperate assault on the fortress
of Agra, then held by one King Jaipal, by Sultan Mahmud of Ghazni. It was ruled by
Sultan Sikandar Lodi in the year 1506. It achieved fame as the capital of the Mughal
emperors from 1526 to 1658 and remains a major tourist destination because of its
many splendid Mughal-era buildings, most notably the Taj Mahal, Agra Fort and
Fatehpur Sikri, all three of which are UNESCO World Heritage Sites.

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.

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 1648.

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.

 

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