its four corners. From the marble terrace which surrounds
it rise four tall minarets of the same material, one at each
corner. The Taj has been modelled and painted more frequently
than any other building in the world, and the word pictures of
it are numberless. But it can only be described as a dream in
marble. It amply justifies the saying that the Moguls
designed like Titans and finished like jewellers. In regard
to colour and design the Taj ranks first in the world for
purely decorative workmanship; while the perfect symmetry of
its exterior once seen can never be forgotten, nor the aerial
grace of its domes, rising like marble bubbles into the azure
sky. In his History of Architecture, Fergusson says of it:--
``This building is an early example of that system of inlaying
with precious stones which became the great characteristic
of the style of the Moghals aftrer the death of Akbar. All
the spandrils of the Taj, all the angles and more important
architectural details, are heightened by being inlaid with
precious stones such as agates, bloodstones, jaspers and the
like. These are combined in wreaths, scrolls and frets,
as exquisite in design as they are beautiful in colour, and
relieved by the pure white marble in which they are inlaid,
they form the most beautiful and precious style of ornament
ever adopted in architecture. 1t is lavishly bestowed on
the tombs themselves and the screens which surround them,
but more sparingly introduced on the mosque that forms
one wing of the Taj, and on the fountains and surrounding
buildings. The judgment, indeed, with which this style of
ornament is apportioned to the various parts, is almost as
remarkable as the ornament itself, and conveys a high idea
of the taste and skill of the architects of this age.''
Of the Taj as a whole Lord Roberts says in his Forty-one Years in India:--
``Neither words nor pencil could give to the most imaginative reader
the slightest idea of the all-satisfying beauty and purity of this
glorious conception. To those who have not already seen it I would
say, `Go to India. The Taj alone is well worth the journey.'''
The Taj was designed by Ustad Isa, variously described as a
Byzantine Turk and a native of Shiraz in Persia. The pietra
dura work belongs to the Persian school and the common
belief that it was designed by Austin de Bordeaux, a French
architect in the service of Shah Jahan, is probably incorrect.
Agra was formerly the capital of the North-West Provinces,
but after the Mutiny the seat of government was removed to
Allahabad. Situated 841 m. from Calcutta it is now an important
railway centre, whence two main lines diverge southwards towards
Bombay. In 1901 the population was 188,022, showing an increase
of 12% during the decade. The city contains cotton mills,
factories for ginning and pressing cotton, a tannery and boot
factory and flour mill. There are also two missionary colleges.
The DISTRICT OF AGRA has an area of 1856 sq. m. Its general
appearance is that common to the Doab, a level plain intersected
by watercourses and ravines. Its general elevation is estimated
at from 650 to 700 ft. above the level of the sea. The district
is intersected by the Jumna, and is also watered by the Agra
canal. The principal crops are millets, pulses, barley,
wheat, cotton and a little indigo. The population in 1901
was 1,060,528, showing an increase of 6% during the decade.
The DIVISION OF AGRA has an area of 10,154 sq. m. In
1901 the population was 5,249,542, showing an increase
of 10% during the decade, attributed to the extension of
irrigation from canals. It comprises the six districts
of Muttra, Agra, Farukhabad, Mainpuri, Etawah and Etah.
For an account of the architecture of Agra see Fergusson's
History of Architecture; Cities of India (1903) by G. W. Forest;
Enchanted India (1899), by Prince Bojidar Karageorgevitch;
and E. B. Havelln, Handbook to Agra and the Taj (1904).
AGRA CANAL, an important Indian irrigation work, available
also for navigation, in Delhi, Gurgaon, Muttra and Agra
districts, and Bharatpur state. The canal receives its
water from the Jumna river at Okia, about 10 m. below
Delhi. The weir across the Jumna was the first attempted
in Upper India upon a foundation of fine sand; it is about
800 yds. long, and rises 7 ft. above the summer level of the
river. From Okla the canal follows the high land between
the Khari-nadi and the Jumna, and finally joins the Banganga
river about 20 m. below Agra. Navigable branches connect
the canal with Muttra and Agra. It was opened in 1874.
AGRAM (Hungarian Zagrab, Croatian Zagreb), the capital of
Croatia-Slavonia, and a royal free town of Hungary; pleasantly
situated between the north bank of the Save and the mountains
which culminate in Sljeme (3396 ft.); 187 m. by rail S. of
Vienna. Pop. (1890) 38,742; (1900) 57,930, or with garrison
61,002. Agram is the seat of the ban, or viceroy, of
Croatia-Slavonia, of the Banal and Septemviral courts, the
highest in the land, and of a chamber of commerce. It is also
the meeting-place of the parliament; but local affairs are
conducted by a municipal council. The city is divided into three
districts. The Kapitel-Stadt, sometimes called the Bishop's
Town, with the palace of the Roman Catholic archbishop, and
his late Gothic cathedral, dating from the 15th century, lies
eastward of the Medvescak, a brook which flows into the
Save. The Upper Town, on high ground west of the
Medvescak, contains the palace of the ban and the natural
history museum. On the south, the Lower Town is separated
from the other districts by the Inca, a long street traversed
by a cable tramway. In it are the business and industrial
quarters; the palace of justice; the academy of science, with
picture-galleries, a library and a collection of antiquities;
the theatre; the Franz Josef University, founded in 1874 to
teach theology, law and philosophy; the synagogue; and the
only Protestant church existing in the country at the beginning
of the 20th century. Roman Catholic churches and schools are
numerous. Besides the large Maximir park and botanical
gardens, many of the squares are planted with trees and adorned
with statues; while the whole city is surrounded by vineyards
and country houses. Tobacco, leather, linen, carpets and
war-material are manufactured in Agram, which also contains
the works of the Hungarian state railways, and has a brisk
trade in grain, wine, potash, honey, silk and porcelain.
In 1094 Agram was founded by Ladislaus I. of Hungary, as the
seat of a bishop; and on the expulsion of its Mongol colony,
in 1242, it was raised to the rank of a royal free city.
For centuries a bitter feud raged between the Kapitel-Stadt
and the Upper Town, until these rivals were forced to join
hands against the Turks. Agram, already the political
centre of Croatia-Slavonia, was selected as the capital in
1867. It suffered severely from earthquake in 1880 and 1901.
AGRAPHA (i.e. ``unwritten''), the name given to certain
utterances ascribed, with some degree of certainty, to
Jesus, which have been preserved in documents other than
the Gospels, e.g. Acts xx. 35; 1 Tim. v. 18; 1 Cor. vii.
10-12, and the Logia (q.v.) discovered in 1897 and 1903 at
Oxyrhyncus. Two interesting examples of such sayings may
be quoted: (1) ``That which is weak shall be saved by that
which is strong''; (2) ``Jesus, on whom be peace, has said:
`The world is merely a bridge; ye are to pass over it,
and not to build your dwellings upon it.''' The first of
these is from the Apostolic Canons (c. A.D. 300), the
second was found by the missionary Alexander Duff inscribed
in Arabic on the gateway of the mosque at Fatehpur Sikri.
The earliest modern collection of such sayings was by
Cotelerius, Ecclesiae Graecae Monumenta (1677-1688), followed
by J. E. Grabe, Spicelegium (1698 and 1700), and J. B.
Fabricius, Codex Apocryph. N. T. (2nd ed., 1719). See
also A. Resch, Agrapha (Leipzig, 1889); J. H. Ropes, Die
Spruche Jesu (Leipzig, 1896); and the article ``Sayings''
in J. Hastings' Dictionary of Christ and the Gospels.
AGRARIAN LAWS (Lat. ager, land). Under this heading we deal
with the disposal of the public land (ager publicus) of ancient
Rome. It was a principle of the Republican constitution
that no gratuitous disposition of state property should be
made without the consent of the people. Hence many of the
ordinances affecting the public land were laws (leges)
in the strictest sense of that word. It is, however, both
justifiable and convenient to consider in this article all
the regulations that were made for the administration of
the public land by the executive authorities, as well as by
the people during the Republic, and by the commands of the
emperor, which had the force of law during the Principate.
The existence of public land, first in Italy, and then
in the Mediterranean world, was the outcome of two ideas
which are very familiar to students of antiquity. This
land was the prize of conquest and was one of the means of
defraying the current expenses of state-administration.
For the latter purpose land is often leased or allowed to
be occupied on the condition of the payment of dues. But it
may be made to fulfil another purpose as well--this purpose
being the satisfaction of the individual needs of poorer
citizens. To meet this object the land is usually assigned,
and on assignment generally ceases to be the property of the
state. But it often happens that the state is not wholly
disinterested in undertaking such acts of assignment. It
gains security and territorial control by planting garrisons
in conquered country, and it relieves itself of the necessity
of providing for its poorer classes whether by state-aid
or by a hazardous tampering with the rights of private
property. In this use to which public land could be turned
we see at once the connexion between agrarian legislation
and colonization--a connexion which was so close that
when a Roman spoke of an agrarian law he seems generally
to have understood by it a law establishing a colony--and
also the two aspects of colonization, the military and the
social. These two objects were indissolubly connected
throughout the whole of the earlier period of Roman agrarian
assignation. They only became separated in the period subsequent
to the Gracchi in so far as social motives still continued
to be operative when military precautions had ceased to be
necessary. It is probable that one of the chief motives
which prompted infant Rome to war with her neighbours was
the land-hunger of her citizens. This hunger she satisfied
after conquest by annexing a portion of the enemy's
territory. The amount thus confiscated varied from time to
time. It was usually a third, but sometimes a half or even
two-thirds, and after the fall of Capua in the Second Punic
War the whole territory of the state was annexed. It is
possible that by the close of the 2nd century B.C. one-half
of the land of Italy belonged to Rome whether in private
ownership or as the property of the state. Annexation was
carried on in the provinces on a relatively smaller scale:
but Rome retained as domain-land much of the territory of
communities which had been destroyed, such as Carthage and
Corinth, and the estates of former kings, such as the lands
of the Attalids in the Chersonese. Other domains in Sicily
and Greece, such as the territory of Leontini in the former,
or Oropus in the latter case, are also found. This peculiar
property of the Roman state in the provinces must be carefully
