COSSIMBAZAR, or KASIMBAZAR

This article appears in Volume V07, Page 219 of the Encyclopedia Britannica.

Encyclopedia Britannica - Main :: COR-CRE

COSSIMBAZAR, or KASIMBAZAR , a decayed town on the river Bhagirathi in the Murshidabad

district

DISTRICT

of Bengal, India, now included in the Berhampur municipality. Pop. (1901) 1262. Though the history of the place cannot be traced back earlier than the 17th century, it was of

great

GREAT

importance long before the foundation of Murshidabad. From the first European traders set up factories here, and after the ruin of Satgaon by the silting up of the mouth of the Saraswati it gained a position, as the

great

GREAT

trading centre of Bengal, which was not challenged until after the foundation of Calcutta. In 1658 the first English agent was established at

Cossimbazar

COSSIMBAZAR, or KASIMBAZAR

, and in 1667 the

chief

CHIEF (from Fr. chef, head, Lat. caput)

of the factory there became an ex-officio member of council. In English documents of this period, and till the early 19th century, the Bhagirathi was described as the

Cossimbazar

COSSIMBAZAR, or KASIMBAZAR

river, and the triangular piece of land between the Bhagirathi, Padma and Jalangi, on which the city stands, as the island of Cossimbazar. The proximity of the factory to Murshidabad, the Mahommedan

capital

CAPITAL (i.e. capital stock or fund)
CAPITAL (Lat. caput, head)

, while it was the main source of its wealth and of its political importance, exposed it to constant danger. Thus in 1757 it was the first to be taken by Suraj-ud-dowlah, the nawab; and the

resident

RESIDENT

with his assistant (Warren Hastings) were taken as prisoners to Murshidabad.
At the beginning of the 19th century the city still flourished; so

late

LATE

as 1811 it was described as famous for its silks, hosiery, koras and beautiful ivory

work

WORK

. But an insidious

change

CHANGE (derived through the Fr. from the Late Lat. cambium, cambiare, to barter; the ultimate derivation is probably from the root which appears in the Gr. 冠 urmu', to bend)

in its once healthy climate had begun to

work

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

CHANGE (derived through the Fr. from the Late Lat. cambium, cambiare, to barter; the ultimate derivation is probably from the root which appears in the Gr. 冠 urmu', to bend)

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.

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