AGRA

a dist. and township, United Provinces, India, The dist. has an area of over 83,000 sq. m. and a pop. of over 35,000,000. Until 1901 it formed one of the ‘N.W. Provs.,’ but became one of the United Provs. of A. and Oudh on the creation of the N.W. Frontier Prov. A. city, on the Jumna R., 840 m. N.W. of Calcutta, was for 150 years the cap. of the Mogul rulers, but was superseded in 1658 by Delhi as the seat of their gov. It was captured from the Mahrattas by Lord Lake in 1803, and was unsucce - — fully besieged for some months during the Mutiny. Its most famous feature is — the wonderful Taj Mahal, the marble — tomb built for queen by Shah Jehan, who was also responsible for the other outstanding architectural features of the city, the Moti Masjid, or Pearl Mosque, and the Jama Masjid. At the suburb of Sikandra is the mausoleum of the city’s founder, the emperor Akbar.