AKBAR THE GREAT (1556-1605)

Jalaudin Mohammad Akbar was born October 15, in the year 1542 A.D. in the fort of Amarkot. Akbar extended this city along the western ban of the river which was enclosed by a day ditch and six lofty gateways for the defence and adornment of the city.
Akbar was declared the heir apparent of his family at the tender age of fourteen years only . He ascended the throne in 1556 at Kalanoor , under the able guidance of his teacher and general Bairam Khan . With the help of Bairam Khan. Akbar defeated the Afghans in the famous battle of panipat on 5th nov., 1556 A.D. in 1558 A.D.

HUMAYUN (1530-1556)

After the death of Babur , his son Humayun became the heir apparent and ascended the throne in 1530 A.D. At this time Humayun was in experienced and had not more idea of administration. Yet he administered the empire with his capabilities. But he was put to trouble by the afghans from whom babur had snatched power. Shershah suri, the famous afghan ruler, concentrated his power and attacked on Humayun in 1539 A.D.

Humayun was forced by the circumstances to leave Hindustan and ultimately he reached Kabul, in Afghanistan. But in the meantime, during his wanderings in India for about 15 years, he was marrid to Hamida bano, who later on gave birth to akbar.

Humayun, with the help of the ruler of Kabul, tried to recapture his throne from the afghans,. The afghans were ruling India from sirhind, so Humayun, with help to the king of Kabul, attacked the afghans in 1555 and defeated them at sirhind and recaptured his empire including agra. But after a short span of six months only, Humayun met with an accident at Delhi. He was a great lover of books and he had beautiful library of his own. . one day when he was climbing the stairs of he library, he slipped badly and thus died in 1556 A.D. in Delhi, where he was buried in heavenly peace. His tomb was built later on by his son Akbar the Great in Delhi which has a good deal of artistic work on it.

AGRA CITY DURING MUGHAL PERIOD

At the time if the invasion of Babur on India in 1526 A.D., the Lodi were over Delhi and Agra. Lbrahim Lodi was the master of a vast empire which included in it Agra, Delhi and some parts of the Punjab. He was defeated by Babur and was killed on April 21st, 1526 in the third battle of panipat. After theis famous battle , Babur dispatched a military cantonment under his son humayun and an other general khwaja kilakaan to capture agra. At the same time , babur himself marched towards Delhi so that Delhi may be captured . after capturing Delhi, Babur also marched to words agra and entered I n the palace of lbrahim lodi on may 10th 1526 A.D. where humayun welcomed his father and presented him the famous diamond “Kohinoor” in the primary stage of the saty of Babur in Agra. He was not a mood stay in India. But secondarily his mind changed and he ultimately decided to sta here and thus he founded the Mughal Empire in India.

Babur could not remain in peace throughout his life, he fought many battles . but he spent the last four year of his life at agra. During the time of babur, agra was two miles in length and half amile in breadth. During this short span of four years he constructed in agra beautiful garden knows as ‘ Gul-E-afghan ‘ which later on was called as ‘aaram bagh, it is situated on the eastern bank of river yamuna and is about 3km. away from the main city area. It is said that babur had a great love for gardens and aaram bagh was not an exception . this garden had a pavilion, a bat and a musqe within it. It was his cherished desire to take rest here even after his death, and due to this reason only, the dead body of babur was buried for some time in Aaram Bagh and later on the dead body was sent to Kabul where it was to rest for ever.

There was an old fort of the hindus kings which was calle Badalagarh, built by a Hindu king named Badal Singh. Later on , when Sikandar Lodi decided to establish agra as his military camp, he got demolished this age old badlagarh for and constructed a new fort on the same foundation and he same site. Sikandar lodi also constructed so many buildings in Agra and adorned this old aged city. The ‘Baradari’ at Sikandara is a cear testimony to it. This new city sikandra is about 12km. from Agra its north on Agra-delhi national Highway no. 2. But due to modernization and expansion in the territory of agra, so many new clolnies have emerged very fastly towords sikandara and it has become a part of agra only.

By and by agra started losing its ancient glory and it became a neglected city. It is said that agra aturned into a deserted and destroyed city , which lost its glorious position. It was merely a village included in the sarkar of bayana state before the afghan king sikandar lodi made made it his capital. Sikandar lodi was an eagle eyed military general , who spotted agra as a most suitable site oto serve as his military head quarters and it became the seat of his Government in 1504 A.D. Dr. A.L Srivastava, a renowned historian said, on akbar the great , that, “there is , however , no doubt, that before sikandar lodi made it his capital , agra was not on the historical map of India . from 1504 onwords, for more that a century and a half , agra remainded the first city of the Mughal Empire.

It is a historical fact that agra was governed by the hindu or rajput kings before the invasion of mohammad ghaznavi in 1022A.D. One statement of the then historian abdulla says that when the army of sultan mahmud of ghaznavi invaded Hindustan, he so ruined agra that it became one of he most insignificant villages of the land.

Thus it is evidently clear that Agra infact, was an old historical city. Some modern historians like Carlyle and Ptolemy have provided some evidences that Agra was an old city. After some excavations at Agra and the surrounding Sites near Agra, Carlyle to the Gahalant Rajputs of Mewar. On the basis of these coins, he concludes that in750 B.C. Agra was ruled by the Gahalant Rajputs. Similarly, another famous geographer Ptolemy was of the opinion, Agrameshwar. On the name if this kind, the city was named as Agra. Likewise a famous modern Indian archaelogist Dr.B.B Lal has also made some observations regarding Agra . After the excavations of Poiyaghat near Dayalbagh, and Tehu, a big, village near Tehsil Etmadpur of Agra District, some busts we,e found there which bear testimony to the times of Gurjar-Pratiharas, which was a rajput clan.