MUZAFFARPUR  , a

town and district of British India, in the Patna division of Bengal . The town is on the right bank of the Little Gandak river, and has a railway station . Pop . (1901), 45,617 . The town is well laid out, and is an important centre of trade, being on the direct route from Patna to Nepal . It is the headquarters of the Behar Light Horse volunteer corps and has a college established in 1899 . The DISTRICT OF MuzAFFARPIR has an area of 3035 sq. m . It was formed in January 18i5 out of the great district of Tirhoot, which up to that time was the largest and most populous district of Lower Bengal . The district is an alluvial plain between the Ganges and the Great Gandak, the Baghmat and Little Gandak being the principal rivers within it . South of the Little Gandak the land is somewhat elevated, with depressions containing lakes toward the south-east . North of the Baghmat the land is lower and marshy, but is traversed by elevated dry ridges . The tract between the two rivers is lowest of all and liable to floods .

Pop . (19oi), 2,754,790, showing an increase of 1.5 % in the.

decade . Average density, 914 per sq. m., being exceeded in all India only by the neighbouring district of Saran . Indigo (superseded to some extent, owing to the fall in price, by sugar) and opium are largely grown . Rice is the chief grain crop, and cloth, carpets and pottery are manufactured . The district is traversed in several directions by the Tirhoot system of the Bengal and North-Western railway . It suffered from drought in 1873-1874, and again in 1897-1898 . SeeMu.affaspur District Gazetteer (Calcutta, 1907).superintendent at the Vatican; and it became under his hands a perfect imitation of painting . His ability and industry soon gained for him a handsome fortune . Part of this he expended in assisting to found the Academy of St Luke in Rome . He died in 1592, and was buried in the church of Santa Maria Maggiore . Many of Muziano's works are in the churches and palaces of Rome; he also worked in Orvieto and Loreto .

In Santa Maria degli Angeli, Rome, is one of his chief works, " St

Jerome preaching to Monks in the Desert "; his " Circumcision " is in the church of the Gesi, his " Ascension " in the Araceli, and his " St Francis receiving the Stigmata " in the church of the Conception . A picture by him, representing Christ washing the feet of His disciples, is in the cathedral of Reims .