ethnic group of nearly 2.5 million people of western India. Many are tribal, and they have been known for rugged independence, sometimes associated with banditry.
town and major industrial centre, southeastern Madhya Pradesh state, central India, in the Chhattisgarh region. It was part of the Haihaivansi Rajputs Kingdom until 1740, when it passed to Maratha ...
town, south-central Rajasthan state, northwestern India. It is a rail and road communications centre as well as a market town, and Bhilwara's industries include cotton milling, handloom weaving, and the ...
major tributary of the Krishna River, flowing through Maharashtra and Karnataka states, western India. It rises in the Bhimashankar heights of the Western Ghats and flows southeastward for 450 miles ...
town, north-central Madhya Pradesh state, central India. The town is connected by road and rail with Gwalior. It is an agricultural market centre; cotton processing and brassware manufacture are the ...
town, central Maharashtra state, western India, on a tributary of the Krishna River near a gap in a range of low hills. Known earlier as Champavatinagar, its modern name probably ...
city, western Haryana state, northwestern India. The city is located on a tributary of the Ganges River, northeast of the Great Indian (Thar) Desert. Selected by the British in 1817 ...
historic village, central Madhya Pradesh state, central India, just east of the Betwa River. The village includes the remains of a richly carved Saivite temple, traditionally said to have been ...
Indian dynasty of the family of the great Maratha king Sivaji. They ruled at Nagpur in present Maharashtra state and were a leading power in the 18th-century Maratha confederacy. They ...
city, capital of Madhya Pradesh state, central India. Lying along the slopes of a sandstone ridge, the city is a major rail junction and has an airport. Industries include cotton ...
international natural resources company, formed in 2001 by the merger of BHP Ltd. and Billiton PLC. One of the world's largest mining companies, it is involved in the production of ...
town, capital of Orissa state, eastern India. Bhubaneshwar's history from the 3rd century BC is represented in nearby archaeological remains. Between the 5th and 10th centuries AD it was the ...
town, northwestern Gujarat state, west-central India, situated in the lowlands between the Rann (marsh) and the Gulf of Kutch. It is a commercial centre for wheat, barley, cattle, cotton, and ...
in Mahayana Buddhism, the stages of spiritual progress of the bodhisattva, or one who, though capable of enlightenment, delays his buddhahood in order to work for the salvation of others. ...
town, northern Maharashtra state, western India. It lies along the Tapti River between the Satpura Range and Ajanta Hills of the Deccan Plateau. Major rail and road routes pass through ...
in Hindu mythology, a restless ghost. Bhuts are believed to be malignant if they have died a violent death or have been denied funeral rites; they are particularly feared by ...
kingdom of south-central Asia, located on the eastern ridges of the Himalayas. The country has an area of about 18,150 square miles (47,000 square kilometres). Bhutan's undefined northern and western ...
Himalayan people who are believed to have emigrated southward from Tibet in the 9th century or later. The Bhutia constitute a majority of the population of Bhutan and form minorities ...
Pakistani politician who became the first woman leader of a Muslim nation in modern history. She served two terms as prime minister of Pakistan, in 1988-90 and in 1993-96.
in art, Chinese jade carved in the form of a flat disk with a hole in the centre. The earliest examples, which are unornamented, date from the Neolithic Period (c. ...
river in western Africa, rising 25 miles (40 km) west of Sunyani in western Ghana. After entering Cote d'Ivoire, the Bia River flows in a southerly direction to the Aby ...
secessionist western African state that unilaterally declared its independence from Nigeria in May 1967. It constituted the former Eastern Region of Nigeria and was inhabited principally by Igbo (Ibo) people. ...
inlet of the Atlantic Ocean on the western African coast, extending east, then south, for 370 miles (600 km) from the Nun outlet of the Niger River (Nigeria) to Cape ...
largest of the Schouten Islands (q.v.), off the northern coast of Irian Jaya (the Indonesian part of New Guinea) at the entrance to Cenderawasih (Geelvink) Bay. It is 45 miles ...
city, Lubelskie wojewodztwo (province), eastern Poland. It lies near the Belarusian border and along the Krzna River on the railroad linking Warsaw and Moscow.
a leading Hebrew poet, esteemed for expressing in his verse the yearnings of the Jewish people and for making the modern Hebrew language a flexible medium of poetic expression.
(Italian: "white on white"), mode of decoration originally practiced on 16th-century Urbino and Faenza majolica, or tin-glazed earthenware. It consisted of designs in an opaque, cool-white colour executed on a ...
novelist and editor for 23 years of the influential Buenos Aires magazine Sur, published by a group of important Argentine writers that included Jorge Luis Borges, Adolfo ...
town, western Cote d'Ivoire (Ivory Coast). It is a trade centre for the rice, cassava, coffee, and cattle produced by the Dan (Yafuba, Yacouba) and Tura (Toura) peoples in the ...
town, Pyrenees-Atlantiques departement, Aquitaine region, southwestern France. It lies along the Bay of Biscay, adjacent to Bayonne and Anglet and 11 miles (18 km) ...
common fish of the cod family, Gadidae, found in the sea along European coastlines. The bib is a rather deep-bodied fish with a chin barbel, three close-set dorsal fins, and ...
city, Hokkaido, Japan. It is located between the cities of Asahikawa to the northeast and Sapporo to the southwest. It was settled in 1891 by Japanese farmer-soldiers (tondenhei) and has ...
the sacred scriptures of Judaism and Christianity. The Christian Bible consists of the Old Testament and the New Testament (qq.v.), with the Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox versions of the ...
discipline that studies textual, compositional, and historical questions surrounding the Old and New Testaments. Biblical criticism lays the groundwork for meaningful interpretation of the Bible.
four bodies of written works: the Old Testament writings according to the Hebrew canon; intertestamental works, including the Old Testament Apocrypha; the New Testament writings; and the New Testament Apocrypha.
any of the original oral or written materials that, in compilation, came to constitute the Bible of Judaism and Christianity. Most of the writings in the Old Testament are of ...
the art and practice of rendering the Bible into languages other than those in which it was originally written. Both the Old and New Testaments have a long history of ...
the systematic study and description of books. The field acquired special importance in the 20th century because of the need for effective organization of the records of human communication in ...
ancient Gallic town (modern Mont Beuvray, in Saone-et-Loire, France), capital of the Aedui in the time of Julius Caesar and the site of his defeat of the Helvetii tribe, the ...
Roman politician who, as consul with Julius Caesar in 59 BC, worked with the senatorial conservatives against Caesar's agrarian legislation. During their consulship Bibulus was prevented by mob violence from ...
a system of government in which the legislature comprises two houses. The modern bicameral system dates back to the beginnings of constitutional government in 17th-century England and to the later ...
town, Neamt judet (county), northeastern Romania. It lies at the confluence of the Bicaz and Bistrita rivers. The town is situated at the southern end of Lake Bicaz, which is ...
any muscle with two heads, or points of origin (from Latin bis, "two," and caput, "head"). In human beings, there are the biceps brachii and biceps femoris.
town (parish), Cherwell district, administrative and historic county of Oxfordshire, England. It lies in farming country on the northern edge of the reclaimed marsh of Ot Moor. An Augustinian priory ...
any of about 10 species of tropical African fishes of the genus Polypterus. Bichirs and the eellike reedfish, Calamoichthys (sometimes called Erpetoichthyscalabaricus), are of the family Polypteridae, order Polypteriformes. ...
breed of small dog noted for its fluffy coat and cheerful disposition. For many centuries it was known as the "bichon" or "Tenerife." Descended from the water spaniel, it is ...
organizer and chief of nursing, hospital, and welfare services for the western armies under the command of General Ulysses S. Grant during the American Civil War.
Irish playwright whose farces and comic operas were popular in the late 18th century. There is no apparent connection between his name and the pseudonym earlier adopted by Jonathan Swift ...
fifth largest cultural-linguistic group in the Philippines, numbering about 4,070,000 in the late 20th century. Their indigenous region is commonly considered to be "Bicolandia," a region composing part of the ...
peninsula, southeastern Luzon, Philippines. It is irregular in form, with several deep coastal bays, large subpeninsulas, and a lengthy coastline. The peninsula has an area of about 4,660 square miles ...
two-wheeled steerable machine that is pedaled by the rider's feet. On a standard bicycle the wheels are mounted in-line in a metal frame, with the front wheel held in a ...
in Islam, any innovation that has no roots in the traditional practice (sunna) of the Muslim community. The most fundamentalist legal school in Islam, the Hanabilah (and its modern survivor, ...
town and traditional emirate, Niger state, west-central Nigeria. The town is on the Bako River, a minor tributary of the Niger, and lies at the intersection of roads from Jebba, ...
city, northeastern Karnataka (formerly Mysore) state, southern India. It lies at 2,300 feet (700 m) above sea level and is 68 miles (109 km) northwest of Hyderabad. The city contains ...
American poet whose introspective verse, notably dramatic monologues by troubled characters, deal with personal guilt, family life, and madness. His unconventional punctuation and typography give his colloquial and economical style ...
French Resistance leader during World War II, twice prime minister, and three times minister of foreign affairs, who late in his career vigorously opposed General Charles de Gaulle's Algerian policy ...
city, York county, southwestern Maine, U.S., at the falls of the Saco River, opposite Saco, on the Atlantic coast 16 miles (26 km) southwest of Portland. Englishmen led by Richard ...
financier who as president of the Second Bank of the United States (1823-36) made it the first effective central bank in U.S. history. He was Pres. Andrew Jackson's chief antagonist ...
small port, Torridge district, administrative and historic county of Devon, England, located at the lowest bridging point of the River Torridge estuary, which empties into Bideford, or Barnstaple, Bay and ...
