Agra is the 9th largest hindi speaking city of India with a total population of 1.5 million. Today Agra is the 24th most populous city of India. Agra district has 56% workers in the Industrial sector, 34% in Agriculture and 6% household workers. Highest employment in Agra is in the Leather, Carpet, Handicraft, Engineering, Construction industry and in Agriculture. Agra is a fine agricultural district because of the availability of water and since it lies completely in the plains. The city of Agra was built along the banks of the River Yamuna. The earliest reference for Agra comes from the Epical age, when in the epic Mahabharata, Agra is referred to as Agravana. In earlier sources, Agra had been referred as Arya Griha. The first person who referred to Agra by its modern name was Ptolemy. The golden age of the city began with the Mughals. It was then known as Akbarabad and as such remained the capital of the Mughal Empire under the emperors Akbar, Jahangir and Shah Jahan. Shah Jahan later shifted his capital to Shahjahanabad (Delhi) in the year 1649. After the decline of the Mughal Empire, the city came under the influence of the Marathas and was renamed Agra, before falling into the hands of the British in 1803.
