True Luxury Tours

Agra’s History and Architecture

The present-day city of Agra was founded in 1504 A.D. by Sultan Sikander Lodi who ruled Northern India under the Delhi Sultanate. It became the capital of Northern India under Sikander Lodi’s son Sultan Ibrahim Lodi. During the battle of Panipat in 1526 A.D. between Sultan Ibrahim Lodi’s army and that of the invading army of the Mongol Babar whose victory at this battle began the Mughal Empire in South Asia.

Hamayun, the son of Emperor Babar, lost the Mughal Empire to Sher Shah Suri, for a number of years and during this period, of the mid-16th Century, Agra was controlled by the Hindu warrior Vikramaditya who also briefly established Northern India as a Hindu state in 1556 A.D.

Hamayun, who was in exile in Persia, invaded India under the banner of the Mughals and took control of Northern India again in the latter 1550’s.

Hamayun’s son, the great Mughal Emperor Akbar, commissioned Agra’s Red Fort in 1565. During the reign of Emperor Akbar’s son, Emperor Shah Jahan, the Red Fort was renovated and added to extensively with fine pietra dura precious gemstone inlays and marble facades to become a royal Mughal residence.

Today, Agra is famous for the mausoleum the Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan commissioned in 1630 A.D. as the final resting place of his favourite wife Mumtaz. Known today as the Taj Mahal, this architectural masterpiece has become one of the world’s most recognizable buildings.

Emperor Shah Jahan’s passion and Love for his wife Mumtaz is reflected in the time, labour and expensive it took to create and finish the Taj Mahal. Twenty-two years of painstaking attention to detail by 20,000 workers under the main artisan-architect Isa Usta contributed to its completion. Precious gemstones were brought from indigenous Indian sources, Persia, Afghanistan, Burma, and present-day Uzbekistan, and include Jasper, Carnelian, Lapis-Lazuli, and Turquoise that were intricately inlayed pietra dura, in floral and geometric, patterns into alabaster and white marble façades from material quarried at Makrana in present-day Rajasthan. These boulders of ultra fine alabaster and white marble were dragged by elephants 370 kms. to the Taj Mahal. Fine calligraphy in the “Thuluth”

script in Arabic from passages from the Holy Qur’an were decided and executed by the Mughal court calligrapher Amanat Khan. Above you as you enter the Mausoleum Gate the words, “Enter Paradise, the abode of the faithful and reward for the righteous” greets you. Amazingly these passages covering the Taj Mahal graduate in actual size from smaller to larger beginning at the base of the structure towards the top so convincingly that the reader believes the writing is the same size. The four minars on each corner are set 5 degrees out from the center of the building to minimize them falling into the building in the case of a strong earthquake. Such attention to concerns of earthquakes, floods and other natural disasters were carefully included into the buildings structure.

Some travellers are almost jaded to the name of the Taj Mahal until they see this awe-inspiring building physically. An uncontrolled mood overcomes the viewer mentally and emotionally with thoughts and feelings of tranquility, peace, beauty, opulent luxury, religious fervor, and refined taste that saturate the senses.

Shopping

Agra’s shopping is concentrated in the old city bazzars and in fine showrooms. Handmade carpets in wool, cotton and wool, and rarely silk are produced here. Perhaps the most famous product today are fine inlayed pietra-dura dishes, boxes, and table tops inlayed in precious gemstones by the descendants of the Taj Mahal artisans whose families stayed in Agra.

Fine leather products such as handbags and shoes are also made in Agra as well as carved alabaster filigree objects.