AGRA, a'gra. A district and a division in the North-West Provinces (q.v.) of British India (Slap: India, C 3). Population of dis trict, 1891, 1,003,800; 1901, 1,000,500; of di vision, 1891, 4,768,000; 1901, 5,248,100.
AGRA (evidently from Achberabad, city of Akbar). A city in the North-West Provinces of British India, situated in the district of the same name on the right bank of the ,hinna, 110 miles southeast of Delhi and S41 miles by rail north west of Calcutta (Slap: India, C 3). As the rail way and administrative centre of its district and of the large "division" to which it gives its name, Agra is a place of great importance. It has an extensive trade in cotton, tobacco, indigo, salt, sugar. and grain, and mannfactures of inlaid mosaic work, for which it is famous, gold lace, and shoes. It also has a considerable trans port trade by the ,liima and Agra Canal. Agra is fortified and has a garrison; there is a military station in the neighborhood of the city. The climate during the hot and rainy seasons (April to September) is injurious to Europeans, hut, on the whole, the average health of the city is equal to that of any other station in the North-West Provinces. The mean annual temper ature is 79° F.; January, GO°, June, 95°. The ancient walls of the city embrace an area of about 11 square miles, of which about one-half is at present ocenitied. The houses are, for the most part, built of the red standstone of the neighboring hills. The principal street, running northwest from the fort, is very spacious. but the rest are generally narrow and irregular, though clean. The Strand, a thoroughfare on the river banks, is two miles long and eighty feet wide.
Some of the public buildings, monuments of the house of Ti inn r, are of striking magnificence. among these arc the line fortress built by Ak bar, within the walls of which are the palace and audience-hall of Shah dehan, and the Mod :\lasjid or Pearl Mosque, so called from its sur passing architectural beauty. Still more cele brated is the Taj Mahal, situated without the city, about a mile to the east of the fort. This
extraordinary and beautiful mausoleum was built by the Emperor Shah Jehan for himself and his favorite wife, Arjimand Ilanoo (sur named Mumtaz Mahal). Twenty thousand men, says Tavernier, who saw the work in progress, were employed incessantly on it for twenty-two years. The principal parts of the building are constructed or overlaid outside and in with white marble; and the mosaic work of the sepulchral apartment and donut is described by various travelers in terms of glowing admiration. It is composed of twelve kinds of stones, of which lapis-lazuli is the most frequent, as well as the most valuable. Of British and other European edifices in and near the city, the principal are the buildings of a Catholic mission and episco pal see founded in the sixteenth century, the government house, the college for the education of natives, the Metcalfe testimonial, the Eng lish church, and the barracks. A committee ap pointed by the government administers munic ipal affairs, derives revenue from real estate and oetroi, and operates the water works. This city is held in great veneration by the Hindus as the scene of the incarnation of Vishnu under the name of Parasu Rama. It first rose to im portance in the beginning of the sixteenth cen tury, and from 1526 to 1658 it was the capital of the Mogul sovereigns. In the latter year Aurungzebe removed to Delhi; heneeforth Agra declined. It was taken in 1784 by Seindia, and surrendered in 1803 to Lord Lake after a bom bardment of a few hours. During the Sepoy mutiny of 18.57 Agra was one of the places in which the Europeans were shut up. They were obliged to abandon the city in June and retire to the fort or residency, to which fugitives also flocked from all parts of the country. Most of the European buildings in the city were burned down by the Sepoys. Heroic sallies were fre quently made from the fort, until the place was finally relieved in October by the rapid and bril liant march of Colonel Greathed. Pop., 1891, 168,662; 1901, 188,300. Consult If. G. Keene, The Agra Guide (Agra, 1872).