{"id":2575,"date":"2021-11-23T23:07:00","date_gmt":"2021-11-23T23:07:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/rustiktravel.com\/allindiaroadtrip\/?p=2575"},"modified":"2024-02-08T14:37:01","modified_gmt":"2024-02-08T14:37:01","slug":"agra-uttarpradesh","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rustiktravel.com\/allindiaroadtrip\/blog\/agra-uttarpradesh\/","title":{"rendered":"Day 53: Agra"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

23th November, 2021<\/sub><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Agra is a city on the banks of the Yamuna river in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, about 210 kilometres (130 mi) south of the national capital New Delhi and 335km west of the state capital Lucknow.  The roads from Delhi to Agra and Lucknow to Agra are expressways and driving on these is a pleasure. Probably one of the best drives in the country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Agra’s notable historical period began during Sikandar Lodi’s reign, but the golden age of the city began with the Mughals. Agra was the foremost city of the Indian subcontinent and the capital of the Mughal Empire under Mughal emperors Babur, Humayun, Akbar, Jahangir and Shah Jahan. Under Mughal rule, Agra became a centre for learning, arts, commerce, and religion, and saw the construction of the Agra Fort, Sikandra and Agra’s most prized monument, the Taj Mahal, built by Shah Jahan as a mausoleum for his favourite empress. With the decline of the Mughal empire in the late 18th century, the city fell successively first to Marathas and later to the East India Company. After Independence, Agra has developed into an industrial town, with a booming tourism industry, along with footwear, leather and other manufacturing. The Taj Mahal and the Agra Fort are UNESCO<\/a> World Heritage Sites<\/a>. 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The name Agra is explained by different derivations, all of which have low verifiability. The most accepted one is that it had its origin from the Hindi word agar meaning salt-pan, a name which was given to it because the soil in the region is brackish and salt used to be made here once by evaporation. Others derive it from Hindu History claiming that the Sanskrit word agra (\u0905\u0917\u094d\u0930) which means the first of the many groves and little forests where Krishna frolicked with the gopis of Vrindavan. The term Agravana hence means grove forest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Agra was also known as Akbarabad in the Mughal era. The name was coined by the emperor Shah Jahan, in honour of his grandfather Akbar.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Agra has two histories: one of the ancient city on the east, or left, bank of the river Yamuna, going back so far as to be lost in the legends of Krishna and Mahabharata and reestablished by Sikandar Lodhi in 1504-1505; the other of the modern city, founded by Akbar in 1558, on the right bank of the river which is associated with the Mughals, and known throughout the world as the city of the Taj. Of ancient Agra little now remains except a few traces of the foundations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n