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 AGRA It is watered by the Jumna, Ganges, and Chum- bul, is generally flat, almost treeless, and arid, but by irrigation produces good crops of millet and other grains, indigo, cotton, pulse, &c. II. One of the six districts or zillahs of the province of Agra; area, 1,865 sq. m. ; pop. about 1,000,- 000. III. A city, capital of the preceding prov- ince and district, and formerly of the Northwest- ern Provinces, on the S.W. bank of the Jumna, connected by railway with the principal Indian cities, 115 m. S.S.E. of Delhi and 783 m. N. W. of Calcutta; pop., including the two sub- urbs and the garrison, about 125,000. It is the centre of an extensive trade, chiefly in cotton, sugar, in'digo, salt, and silks. The ancient walls embrace an area of nearly 11 sq. m., about half of which is occupied. Inside Fort Akbar are the palace of Shah Jehan and the famous pearl mosque. Near the river, about 1 m. E. of the fort, is the celebrated Taj Mahal, a mausoleum built by Jehan for himself and his AGRARIAN LAWS 191 The Taj Mahal, Agra. wife Noor Mahal, in the construction of which 20,000 men are said to have been employed 22 years ; the cost was estimated at over $4,000,000. It is of white marble, 100 feet in diameter and 200 in height, built in the form of an irregular octagon, and rising from a high marble terrace which rests upon another of red sandstone. At the corners of the marble terrace are lofty minarets, and in the centre of the main build- ing rises a dome, flanked by cupolas of similar form. Both the interior and exterior are deco- rated with mosaics of precious stones and the most beautiful tracery. The whole Koran is said to be written in mosaic of precious stones on the interior walls. The sarcophagi of Jehan and Noor Mahal lie in the crypt below. Among the European public buildings is the govern- ment house, the seat of the lieutenant governor of the Northwestern Provinces, who is some- times called lieutenant governor of Agra, the province having been at first destined (in 1833) to form a separate presidency. In the 16th century Agra was embellished and fortified by Akbar, whose tomb is 6 m. from the city. In 1658 the capital was removed to Delhi. From that time the population, then estimated at nearly 500,000, began to decline, but it has in- creased since the British occupation. In the 18th century Agra was held by various native rulers, and eventually by Madhaji Sindia, the Mahratta chief, patron of the French adven- turer Pirron, who during the conflict in 1803 with the East India company employed in his turn the Dutch adventurer Hessing. Anarchy prevailed in the garrison, and several Mahratta regiments joined the English forces under Gen. Lake, who occupied the city in September, and the fort in October, 1803. During the sepoy mutiny of 1857 most of the European houses were destroyed. The English and other for- eign residents, however, shut themselves up in the fort and sustained a gallant defence until re- lieved by Col. Greathed. Agra is venerated by the Hindoos as the city of the incarnation of Vishnu under the name of Parasu Rama. AGRAM (Croat. Zagreb ; Hun. Zdgrdb), a town of the Austro-Hungarian monarchy, capital of Croatia and of a county of its own name, about a mile from the river Save, and 160 m. S. of Vienna; pop. hi 1869, 20,637. It is the resi- dence of the ban of Croatia, and the see of a Roman Catholic archbishop. It carries on an important trade in salt, tobacco, grain, and wines. In its vicinity is one of the finest parks ot the monarchy. AGRARIAN LAWS, enactments framed at vari- ous times by the Romans to regulate the ager publicus, or public domain. In the first epoch of the growth of Rome, when the city had not yet extended beyond the Palatine hill, the whole soil of the state was ager publicus, or undivided public property ; and from the state, or the populus Romanus, consisting exclusively of citizens, every citizen received a share for his private use. In principle all the land was, therefore, ager publicw, and the citizen could only acquire possession as tenant at will of the state ; but in course of time the descend- ants of the original founders, or the patricians, transformed these primitive concessions into an absolute right, called in the Roman law dejure quiritio. Still the principle remained, and was recognized during the whole epoch of the republic, that all lands and booty acquired by conquest were acquired for the state, and could only become the property of individuals through the cession to them of the rights of the state As conquest increased the public possessions, and the class of plebeians was formed, the Ro- man people gave them lands in the ager pub- licus, as private property, on condition of theil paying a tribute, and undertaking other pub- lic services; but the patricians always pre- served their ancient right of receiving in pos- session and using parts of the public domain, on paying to the public treasury a tithe of its product. From the first epoch of Roman so- ciety, lands thus held could pass as an inherit-