42 Facts About Agra

1.

Agra is included on the Golden Triangle tourist circuit, along with Delhi and Jaipur; and the Uttar Pradesh Heritage Arc, a tourist circuit of Uttar Pradesh, along with Lucknow and Varanasi.

FactSnippet No. 617,536
2.

Name Agra is explained by different derivations, all of which have low verifiability.

FactSnippet No. 617,537
3.

Masud Sa'd Salman claims to have been there when Mahmud assaulted Agra, claiming the Raja Japal surrendered after seeing a nightmare.

FactSnippet No. 617,538
4.

Agra ruled his sultanate from Agra until he was defeated and killed by Mughal Emperor Babur in the First battle of Panipat, fought in 1526.

FactSnippet No. 617,539
5.

Agra was the foremost city of the subcontinent and the capital of the Mughal Empire until 1658, when Aurangzeb shifted the entire court to Delhi.

FactSnippet No. 617,540
6.

Babur, the founder of the Mughal dynasty, acquired Agra after defeating the Lodhis and the Tomaras of Gwalior in the First Battle of Panipat in 1526.

FactSnippet No. 617,541
7.

Babur was determined to establish the seat of his government at Agra, but was almost dissuaded by the desolate appearance of the region, as clear from this quote from his memoir Baburnama:.

FactSnippet No. 617,542
8.

Shortly after coming to Agra I passed the Jumna with this object in view, and examined the country to pitch upon a fit spot for a garden.

FactSnippet No. 617,543
9.

In consequence of the want of beauty and of the disagreeable aspect of the country, I gave up my intention of making a charbagh; but as no better situation presented itself near Agra, I was finally compelled to make the best of this same spot.

FactSnippet No. 617,544
10.

Agra converted the city into a great centre of political, cultural and economic importance, connecting it with the various parts of his vast empire.

FactSnippet No. 617,545
11.

Agra is a very great city, and populous, built with stone, having fair and large streets with a fair river running by it.

FactSnippet No. 617,546
12.

Between Agra and Fatehpur are twelve miles and all the way is a market of victuals and other things as full as though a man were still in a town, and so many people as if a man were in a market.

FactSnippet No. 617,547
13.

Agra continued to expand and flourish during Akbar's successor Jahangir's reign as he wrote in his autobiography Tuzuk-e-Jahangiri:.

FactSnippet No. 617,548
14.

Nevertheless, the cultural and strategic importance of Agra remained unaffected and in official correspondence it continued to be referred to as the second capital of the empire.

FactSnippet No. 617,549
15.

Agra was one of the centres of the Indian rebellion of 1857.

FactSnippet No. 617,550
16.

Gradually, Agra declined to the position of a mere provincial town, and its prosperity declined:.

FactSnippet No. 617,551
17.

Agra has become of late years a large railway centre, and its commercial prosperity seems to be reviving.

FactSnippet No. 617,552
18.

However, in the years between the mutiny and independence Agra was a major centre of Hindi and Urdu journalism.

FactSnippet No. 617,553
19.

Paliwal par in Agra is named after S K D Paliwal, who brought out the Hindi daily Sainik.

FactSnippet No. 617,554
20.

Post India's independence, Agra has been a part of Uttar Pradesh and has gradually developed into an industrial city, with a significant contribution to Uttar Pradesh's economy.

FactSnippet No. 617,555
21.

The Taj Mahal and Agra Fort received UNESCO World Heritage Sites status in 1983.

FactSnippet No. 617,556
22.

Agra is the birthplace of the now extinct religion known as Din-i-Ilahi, which was founded by Akbar and of the Radhaswami Faith, which has around two million followers worldwide.

FactSnippet No. 617,557
23.

Agra is included on the Golden Triangle tourist circuit, along with Delhi and Jaipur; and the Uttar Pradesh Heritage Arc, a tourist circuit of Uttar Pradesh, along with Lucknow and Varanasi.

FactSnippet No. 617,558
24.

Broadly speaking, the climate of Agra is classified as BSh by the Koppen-Geiger climate classification system.

FactSnippet No. 617,559
25.

However, the monsoons, though substantial in Agra, are not quite as heavy as the monsoon in other parts of India.

FactSnippet No. 617,560
26.

Agra has high levels of air pollution and one of the worst AQIs in India.

FactSnippet No. 617,561
27.

Agra is the second largest contributor to River Yamuna's pollution, after Delhi.

FactSnippet No. 617,562
28.

The only major wildlife sanctuary near Agra is Keetham Lake, known as Sur Sarovar Bird Sanctuary.

FactSnippet No. 617,563
29.

Agra district has two Lok Sabha constituencies, Agra and Fatehpur Sikri, and nine Uttar Pradesh Vidhan Sabha constituencies.

FactSnippet No. 617,564
30.

The MP for Agra constituency is SP Singh Baghel, from Bharatiya Janata Party.

FactSnippet No. 617,565
31.

Ahead of the election the for 2022 Uttar Pradesh Legislative Assembly, it was announced that two more districts, including Agra, could become a police commissionerate before the elections.

FactSnippet No. 617,566
32.

Electricity power distribution and bill collection in Agra is the sole responsibility of Torrent Power, a private sector company.

FactSnippet No. 617,567
33.

The control of power distribution in Agra was handed over to Torrent Power from the state-owned UP Power Corporation Ltd in 2010, in an effort to move towards power reforms and cutting the massive distribution losses in the state.

FactSnippet No. 617,568
34.

Agra has three primary sources for municipal water supply: water treatment plants at Sikandra and Jeoni Mandi, and groundwater using tubewells.

FactSnippet No. 617,569
35.

Since a large portion of the water demand is fulfilled from the Yamuna river, which is a highly polluted river, water quality in Agra is usually poor, with unhealthy levels of chlorine required for purification.

FactSnippet No. 617,570
36.

Agra was the second most self-employed in India in 2007, behind Varanasi, followed by Bhopal, Indore and Patna.

FactSnippet No. 617,571
37.

Agra city is known for its leather goods, the oldest and famous leather firm Taj Leather World is in Sadar bazar.

FactSnippet No. 617,572
38.

Taj Mahal is mausoleum complex in Agra, built by the Mughal emperor Shah Jahan as a tomb for his wife Mumtaz Mahal, who died in childbirth in 1631, having been the emperor's inseparable companion since their marriage in 1612.

FactSnippet No. 617,573
39.

Agra Fort is a large 16th-century fortress of red sandstone located by the Yamuna River in Agra.

FactSnippet No. 617,574
40.

Agra has several other places of interest, most of them from its Mughal past.

FactSnippet No. 617,575
41.

Agra City comes under the jurisdiction of Agra Division of North Central Railways Zone of the Indian Railways.

FactSnippet No. 617,576
42.

Agra University was established on 1 July 1927 and catered to colleges spread across the United Provinces, the Rajputana, the Central Provinces and almost to entire northern India.

FactSnippet No. 617,577