ere taken as prisoners to
Murshidabad.

At the beginning of the 19th century the city still flourished; so late
as 1811 it was described as famous for its silks, hosiery, _koras_ and
beautiful ivory work. But an insidious change in its once healthy
climate had begun to work its decay; the area of cultivated land round
it had shrunk to vanishing point, jungle haunted by wild beasts taking
its place; and in 1813 its ruin was completed by a sudden change in the
course of the Bhagirathi, which formed a new channel 3 m. from the old
town, leaving an evil-smelling swamp around the ancient wharves. Of its
splendid buildings the fine palace of the maharaja of Cossimbazar alone
remains, the rest being in ruins or represented only by great mounds of
earth. The first wife of Warren Hastings was buried at Cossimbazar,
where her tomb with its inscription still remains.

See _Imp. Gaz. of India_ (Oxford, 1908), s.v.

COSTA, GIOVANNI (1826-1903), Italian painter, was born in Rome. He
fought under Garibaldi in 1848, and served as a volunteer in the war of
1859; and his enthusiasm for Italian unity was actively shown again in
1870, when he was the first to mount the breach in the assault of Rome
near the Porta Pia. He had settled meanwhile at Florence, where his
fight for the independence of art from worn-out traditions was no less
strenuous, and he became known as a landscape-painter of remarkable
originality, and of great influence in the return to minute observation
of nature. He had many English friends and followers, notably Matthew
Ridley Corbet (1850-1902), and Lord Carlisle, and was closely associated
with Corot and the Barbizon school. In later years he lived and worked
mainly in Rome, where his studio was an important centre. An exhibition
of his pictures was held in London in 1904, and he is represented in the
Tate Gallery. He died at Rome in 1903.

See also Madame Agresti's _Giovanni Costa_ (1904).

COSTA, LORENZO (1460-1535), Italian painter, was born at Ferrara, but
went in early life to Bologna and ranks with the Bolognese school. In
1438 he painted his famous "Madonna and Child with the Bentivoglio
family," and other frescoes, on the walls of the Bentivoglio chapel in
San Giacomo Maggiore, and he followed this with many other works. He was
a great friend of Francia, who was much influenced by him. In 1509 he
went to Mantua, where his patron was the Marquis Francesco Gonzaga, and
he eventually died th