Mathura is the 44th largest Hindi speaking city of India with a total population of 3.4 Lakh. Major employment in Mathura is in Agriculture, Tourism, Textiles and in Chemical industry. Mathura has 50% Agriculture workers, 45% Industry and other workers and 5% Household workers. Mathura is a good agricultural belt because of the Yamuna River. The history of Mathura goes back to the time of the Ramayana. In the epic, the Ikshvaku prince Shatrughna slays a demon called Lavanasura and claims the land. Afterwards, the place came to be known as Madhuvan as it was thickly wooded, then Madhupura and later Mathura. In the 6th century BCE Mathura became the capital of the Surasena Kingdom. The city was later ruled by the Mauryan empire. Megasthenes, writing in the early 3rd century BCE, mentions Mathura as a great city under the name Méthora. Mathura was conquered by the Indo-Scythians during the 1st century BCE. The Indo-Scythian satraps of Mathura are sometimes called the "Northern Satraps", as opposed to the "Western Satraps" ruling in Gujarat and Malwa. After Rajuvula, several successors are known to have ruled as vassals to the Kushans, such as the "Great Satrap" Kharapallana and the "Satrap" Vanaspara, who are known from an inscription discovered in Sarnath, and dated to the 3rd year of Kanishka (c. 130 CE), in which they were paying allegiance to the Kushans. Mathuran art and culture reached its zenith under the Kushan dynasty which had Mathura as one of their capitals, the other being Purushapura (modern-day Peshawar, Pakistan). Faxian mentions the city as a centre of Buddhism about 400 CE while his successor Xuanzang, who visited the city in 634 CE, mentions it as Motulo, recording that it contained twenty Buddhist monasteries and five Brahmanical temples. The city was sacked and many of its temples were destroyed by Mahmud of Ghazni in 1018 CE and again by Sikandar Lodhi, who ruled the Sultanate of Delhi from 1489 to 1517 CE. Mathura played an important role during the British time as well. Braj is another major language of Mathura.
