| | - Mahabharat Range
- (from the article "Nepal") A complex system of mountain ranges, some 50 miles in width and varying in elevation from 8,000 to 14,000 feet, lie between the Mahabharat Range and the Great Himalayas. The ...
- Mahabharata
- one of the two Sanskrit great epic poems of ancient India (the other being the Ramayana). The Mahabharata is an important source of information ... [25 Related Articles]
- Mahabodhi temple
- (from the article "Bodh Gaya") ...have representations of the Vedic gods Indra and Surya, and the railing medallions are carved with imaginary beasts. This shrine was replaced in the Kushan period (2nd century AD) by ...
- Mahabodhi temple
- (from the article "Pagan") ...It is much revered and famous for its huge golden umbrella finial encrusted with jewels. It was considerably damaged in the earthquake of 1975. Also revered are the late 12th-century ...
- Mahadaji Sindhia
- (from the article "India") ...(1761). Again, like the Holkars, the Sindhias were based largely in central India, first at Ujjain, and later (from the last quarter of the 18th century) in Gwalior. It was ...
- Mahadammayaza
- (from the article "Toungoo Dynasty") ...and the victory over Arakan was never achieved. Instead, the Myanmar empire gradually disintegrated. The Toungoo dynasty, however, survived for another century and a half, until the death of Mahadammayaza ...
- Mahadeo Hills
- sandstone hills located in the northern part of the Satpura Range, in southern Madhya Pradesh state, central India. The hills have small plateaus and steep scarps that were formed during ... [1 Related Articles]
- Mahadeva temple
- (from the article "South Asian arts") ...Lakkundi temple is also the first to be built of chloritic schist, which is the favoured material of the later period and which lends itself easily to elaborate sculptural ornamentation. ...
- Mahaica River
- (from the article "Guyana") ...the tributaries of the Essequibo, the Potaro, Mazaruni, and Cuyuni drain the northwest, and the Rupununi drains the southern savanna. The coast is cut by shorter rivers, including the Pomeroon, ...
- Mahaicony River
- (from the article "Guyana") ...tributaries of the Essequibo, the Potaro, Mazaruni, and Cuyuni drain the northwest, and the Rupununi drains the southern savanna. The coast is cut by shorter rivers, including the Pomeroon, Mahaica, ...
- mahajan
- (from the article "Gujarat") Among the most durable and effective of the state's cultural institutions are the trade and craft guilds known as the mahajans. Often coterminous with castes and largely autonomous, the guilds ...
- Mahajan, Pramod
- Indian politician (b. Oct. 30, 1949, Mahbubnagar, Andhra Pradesh, India-d. May 3, 2006, Mumbai [Bombay], India), established the pro-Hindu Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) as a major force in Indian politics, ... [1 Related Articles]
- mahajanapada
- (from the article "Uttar Pradesh") A systematic history of India and the area of Uttar Pradesh dates to the end of the 7th century BC, when 16 mahajanapadas (great states) in northern India were contending ...
- Mahajanga
- town and major port, northwestern Madagascar. It lies on the island's northwest coast, at the mouth of the Betsiboka River, whose estuary widens there into Bombetoka Bay. The town was ...
- Mahakala
- (from the article "Mahakala") in Tibetan Buddhism, one of the eight fierce protective deities. See dharmapala.Daikoku's associationDaikokuDaikoku is generally associated with the Indian deity ...
- Mahakala
- (from the article "Hinduism") ...1.1.188). "Time" (kala) is thus another name for Yama, the god of death. The name is associated with Shiva in his destructive aspect as Mahakala and is ...
- Mahakam River
- river rising in the mountains of central Indonesian Borneo (Kalimantan) and flowing about 400 miles (650 km) east-southeast to Makassar Strait, in a wide delta. The chief town along its ... [1 Related Articles]
- mahakathina
- (from the article "Buddhism") ...tree" are the usual components of the ceremony. The kathina celebration culminates in the making and presentation of the mahakathina ("great robe"), a particularly ...
- mahakavya
- (from the article "South Asian arts") Poems of the second genre, the mahakavya ("great poem," but not to be confused with the Sanskrit mahakavya genre), are based mainly on the Sanskrit models of the Mahabharata, Ramayana, ...
- mahakavya
- a particular form of the Sanskrit literary style known as kavya. It is a short epic similar to the epyllion and is characterized by elaborate figures of speech. [1 Related Articles]
- Mahal, Taj
- American singer, guitarist, songwriter, and one of the pioneers of what came to be called world music. He combined blues and other African-American music with Caribbean and West African music ...
- Mahalapye
- village, eastern Botswana. It lies midway along the Mafikeng-Bulawayo railway and is 125 miles (200 km) northeast of Gaborone, the national capital. The name Mahalapye refers to an impala. The ...
- Mahallah al-Kubra, Al-
- city, in the central Nile River delta of Lower Egypt, eastern Al-Gharbiyah muhafazah (governorate). It lies just west of the Damietta Branch of the Nile. Because the names of a ...
- Mahalli, Jalal al-Din al-
- (from the article "Suyuti, al-") ...of Tafsir al-Jalalayn ("Commentary of the Two Jalals"), a word-by-word commentary on the Qur'an, the first part of which was written by Jalal al-Din al-Mahalli. His Itqan fi 'ulum al-Qur'an ...
- mahalwari system
- one of the three main revenue systems of land tenure in British India, the other two being the zamindar (landlord) and the ryotwari (individual cultivator). The word mahalwari is derived ...
- Mahamat, Moussa Faki
- (from the article "Chad") ...sq mi) | Population (2005 est.): 9,657,000, excluding some 200,000 refugees from The Sudan | Capital: N'Djamena | Chief of state: President Lieut. Gen. Idriss Deby | Head of government: ...
- mahamudra
- (Sanskrit: "the great seal"), in Tantric Buddhism, the final goal, the union of all apparent dualities. Mudra, in addition to its more usual meaning, has in Tantric Buddhism the esoteric ... [1 Related Articles]
- Mahamuni
- (from the article "Mandalay") ...on 729 white marble tablets, and the tablets are set up in a square, each tablet protected by a small pagoda. The 730th pagoda is a conventional temple occupying the ...
- Mahan, Alfred Thayer
- American naval officer and historian who was a highly influential exponent of sea power in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. [6 Related Articles]
- Mahan, Larry E.
- professional American rodeo wrangler, the first to win five consecutive Rodeo Cowboys Association (RCA; later Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association, PRCA) all-around cowboy championships, from 1966 through 1970. His record was ...
- Mahanadi River
- river in central India, rising in the hills of southeastern Madhya Pradesh state. Its upper course runs north as an insignificant stream, draining the eastern Chhattisgarh Plain. After receiving the ... [2 Related Articles]
- Mahanalesvara
- (from the article "South Asian arts") From Malava, the bhumija style spread to the neighbouring regions. To the north in Rajasthan, the Mahanalesvara temple at Menal (c. 11th century), the Sun temple at Jhalrapatan (11th century), ...
- Mahananda River
- river in northern India and Bangladesh. It rises in the Darjeeling Hills in extreme northern West Bengal state. The river flows south through a rich agricultural area in Bihar state, ...
- Mahane Yehuda
- (from the article "Jerusalem") ...into cultural centres. Others include the Bukharan Quarter; Me'a She'arim, founded by Orthodox Jews from eastern and central Europe, with its scores of small synagogues and yeshivas; and Mahane Yehuda, ...
- Mahanubhava
- (from the article "South Asian arts") With Bengali, Marathi is the oldest of the regional literatures in Indo-Aryan, dating from about AD 1000. In the 13th century, two Brahminical sects arose, the Mahanubhava and the Varakari ...
- Mahapadma
- (from the article "India") ...the death of Ajatashatru (c. 459 BCE) and a series of ineffectual rulers, Shaishunaga founded a new dynasty (see Shaishunaga dynasty), which lasted for about half a century until ousted ...
- Mahaprabhu, Chaitanya
- (from the article "Hare Krishna") ...1896-1977). This movement is a Western outgrowth of the popular Bengali bhakti (devotional) yoga tradition, or Krishna Consciousness, which began in the 16th century. Bhakti yoga's founder, Chaitanya Mahaprabhu (1485-1534?), ...
- Mahaprajapati
- (from the article "Buddha") ...or a buddha; one astrologer said that there was no doubt, the child would become a buddha. His mother died seven days after his birth, and so he was reared ...
- mahapurusa
- in Hindu, Jaina, and Buddhist belief, an individual of extraordinary destiny, distinguished by certain physical traits or marks (laksanas). Such men are born to become either universal rulers (cakravartins) or ... [1 Related Articles]
- Mahar
- a caste-cluster, or group of many endogamous castes, living chiefly in Maharashtra state, India, and in adjoining states. They mostly speak Marathi, the official language of Maharashtra. In the early ... [2 Related Articles]
- maharaja
- (from mahat, "great," and rajan, "king"), an administrative rank in India; generally speaking, a Hindu prince ranking above a raja. Used historically, maharaja refers specifically to a ruler of one ... [1 Related Articles]
- Maharashtra
- state of India that occupies a substantial portion of the Deccan Plateau in the western peninsular part of the subcontinent. Its shape roughly resembles a triangle, with the 450-mile (725-kilometre) ... [5 Related Articles]
- Maharashtrian theatre
- (from the article "South Asian arts") ...Urdu, toured all over India. Their spectacular showmanship, based on a dramatic structure of five acts with songs, dances, comic scenes, and declamatory acting, was copied by regional theatres. The ...
- Maharastri language
- (from the article "Indo-Aryan languages") According to Prakrit grammarians, Maharastri ("From the Maharashtra Country") is the Prakrit par excellence. It is the language of kavyas (epic poems) such as the Ravanavaha (also called Setubandha) from ...
- mahasammata
- (from the article "India") ...of private property and of family and finally to immoral behaviour. In this condition of chaos, the people gathered together and decided to elect one among them (the
- Mahasanghika
- (from Sanskrit mahasangha, "great order of monks"), early Buddhist school in India that, in its views of the nature of the Buddha, was a precursor of the Mahayana tradition. [3 Related Articles]
- Mahasena
- (from the article "Buddhism") ...monastery, which eventually included Hinayana, Mahayana, and even Vajrayana monks. Although these cosmopolitan tendencies were resisted by the Mahavihara monks, they were openly supported by King Mahasena (276-303 CE). Under ...
- mahasiddha
- in the Tantric, or esoteric, traditions of India and Tibet, a person who, by the practice of meditative disciplines, has attained siddha (miraculous powers); a great magician. [2 Related Articles]
- Mahasthamaprapta
- (from the article "Buddhism") ...Amitayus (Sanskrit: "Infinite Lifespan"). He is flanked in the Pure Land he created in fulfillment of his vows by Avalokitesvara (Chinese: Guanyin; Japanese: Kannon) on his left and Mahasthamaprapta on ...
- Mahasthan
- (from the article "Bogra") The site of Mahasthan (identified by inscriptions as Pundravardhana), capital of the Pundra dynasty, lies just north of the city; it dates from the time of the Mauryan empire (c. ...
- Mahathir bin Mohamad
- Malaysian politician, who served as prime minister of Malaysia from 1981 to 2003, overseeing his country's transition to an industrialized nation. [2 Related Articles]
- Mahavairocana-sutra
- text of late Tantric Buddhism and a principal scripture of the large Japanese Buddhist sect known as Shingon ("True Word"). The text received a Chinese translation, under the title Ta-jih ... [1 Related Articles]
- Mahavamsa
- (Pali: "Great Chronicle"), historical chronology of Ceylon (modern Sri Lanka), written in the 5th or 6th century, probably by the Buddhist monk Mahanama. It deals more with the history of ... [4 Related Articles]
- Mahavastu
- (Sanskrit: "Great Story"), important legendary life of the Buddha, produced as a late canonical work by the Mahasanghika school of early Buddhism and presented as a historical introduction to the ... [2 Related Articles]
- Mahavihara
- (from the article "Buddhism") Also during the Gupta period, there emerged a new Buddhist institution, the Mahavihara ("Great Monastery"), which often functioned as a university. This institution enjoyed great success during the reign of ...
- Mahavihara
- Buddhist monastery founded in the late 3rd century BCE in Anuradhapura, the ancient capital of Ceylon (modern Sri Lanka). The monastery was built by the Sinhalese king Devanampiya Tissa not ... [3 Related Articles]
- Mahaviharavasi
- (from the article "Buddhism") The Mahavihara ("Great Monastery") school became dominant in Sri Lanka at the beginning of the 2nd millennium CE and gradually spread through mainland Southeast Asia. It was established in Myanmar ...
- Mahavira
- Indian mathematician who made significant contributions to the development of algebra. [1 Related Articles]
- Mahavira
- Epithet of Vardhamana, the last of the 24 Tirthankaras ("Ford-makers," i.e., saviours who promulgated Jainism), and the reformer of the Jain monastic community. According to the traditions of the two ... [12 Related Articles]
- Mahavishnu Orchestra
- (from the article "McLaughlin, John") ...Brew (both 1969) and played in Tony Williams's seminal jazz-rock trio Lifetime. In 1970 he became a disciple of spiritual guru Sri Chinmoy; he acquired the name Mahavishnu and formed ...
- mahavrata
- (from the article "Jain vrata") in Jainism, a religion of India, any of the vows (vratas) that govern the activities of both monks and laymen. The mahavratas, or five ...
- mahavratin
- (from the article "Kapalika and Kalamukha") ...because of the black mark, or tilaka, customarily worn on their foreheads) were often confused. They were both designated as mahavratins ("observers of the ...
- Mahaweli Ganga
- (Sinhalese: "Great Sandy River"), river, central and eastern Sri Lanka. At 208 mi (335 km) in length, it is Sri Lanka's longest river. It rises on the Hatton Plateau on ... [1 Related Articles]
- mahayajna
- (from the article "yajna") ...the professional class of priests, the modern Brahmans, who are still required to officiate at all important public yajnas. Many orthodox Hindu householders continue to perform the mahayajnas, the five ...
- Mahayana
- movement that arose within Indian Buddhism around the beginning of the Common Era and became by the 9th century the dominant influence on the Buddhist cultures of Central and East ... [35 Related Articles]
- Mahayana-sraddhotpada-sastra
- (Sanskrit: "Treatise on the Awakening of Faith in the Mahayana"), relatively brief but influential exposition of the fundamentals of Mahayana Buddhist philosophy and faith. Though the work is said to ... [1 Related Articles]
- Mahayoga
- (from the article "Buddhism") ...the convergence of the two truths and meditation on the pentad of buddhas; Yoga, which involves the evocation of the god, the identification of the self with the god, and ...
- Mahayogini
- (from the article "Hinduism") ...One form of Shaktism identifies the goddess (usually Durga) with brahman and worships her as the ruler of the universe by virtue of whom even Shiva exists. ...
- mahayuga
- (from the article "chronology") ...successive cycles constituting successive periods of evolution and involution of the universe. The period calculated as the basis of the chronology of the universe was the mahayuga, ...
- Mahbub ul Haq
- Pakistani economist who in 1990 created the Human Development Index, which the United Nations Development Programme used to produce annual reports that examined people's standards of living in order to ...
- Mahbubnagar
- town, administrative headquarters of Mahbubnagar district, west central Andhra Pradesh state, southern India. Located on the Central Railway route southwest of Hyderabad, Mahbubnagar is also a road centre. Cotton ginning ...
- mahdi
- (Arabic: "divinely guided one"), in Islamic eschatology, a messianic deliverer who will fill the Earth with justice and equity, restore true religion, and usher in a short golden age lasting ... [6 Related Articles]
- Mahdi Army
- (from the article "Iraq") ...to the brink of civil war and led to the deaths of tens of thousands of people on all sides of the struggle. Most of the killings were carried out ...
- Mahdi, al-
- creator of a vast Islamic state extending from the Red Sea to Central Africa and founder of a movement that remained influential in The Sudan a century later. As a ... [12 Related Articles]
- Mahdi, al-
- (from the article "Muqanna', al-") religious leader, originally a fuller (cloth processor) from Merv, in Khorasan, who led a revolt in that province against the 'Abbasid caliph al-Mahdi. Preaching a doctrine combining elements of Islam ...
- Mahdi, Sayyid 'Abd al-Rahman al-
- (from the article "Mahdist") ...in the Battle of Omdurman (q.v.; Sept. 2, 1898); he himself was killed in the final Battle of Umm Dibaykarat (Nov. 24, 1899). Leadership of the movement then passed to ...
- Mahdia
- town and fishing port located on Al-Sahil (Sahel), the coastal plain region in eastern Tunisia, about 125 miles (200 km) from Tunis. It lies on the narrow rocky peninsula of ... [2 Related Articles]
- Mahdist
- (Arabic: "Helper"), follower of al-Mahdi (Muhammad Ahmad ibn as-Sayyid 'Abd Allah) or of his successor or descendants. Ansar is an old term applied to some of the companions of the ... [4 Related Articles]
- Mahdiyyah
- (from the article "Sudan, history of the") Muhammad Ahmad ibn 'Abd Allah was the son of a Dunqulahwi boatbuilder who claimed descent from the Prophet Muhammad. Deeply religious from his youth, he was educated in one of ...
- Mahe
- (from the article "Pondicherry") The Mahe sector consists of two parts: the quaint, picturesque town of Mahe, with all its buildings situated on the left bank of the Mahe River close to its mouth; ...
- Mahe
- (from the article "Seychelles") Seychelles is composed of two main island groups: the Mahe group of 40 central, mountainous granitic islands, and a second group of over 70 outer, flat, coralline islands. The islands ...
- Mahe
- town in Pondicherry union territory, which is an enclave in northern Kerala state, southwestern India. Mahe lies on the left bank of the Naluthara River, northwest of Kozhikode (Calicut). The ... [1 Related Articles]
- Mahe Island
- largest island of the Seychelles archipelago, Republic of Seychelles, in the western Indian Ocean. The island is 4 miles (6 km) wide and 16 miles (26 km) long and has ... [2 Related Articles]
- Mahendra
- king of Nepal from 1955 to 1972. [2 Related Articles]
- Mahendra
- propagator of Buddhism in Ceylon. Generally believed to be the son of the Indian emperor Asoka, he is honoured in Sri Lanka as a founding missionary of that country's majority ... [1 Related Articles]
- Mahendrapala
- (from the article "Gurjara-Pratihara Dynasty") ...at Kannauj. Nagabhata II was succeeded by his son Ramabhadra, about 833, who after a brief reign was succeeded by his son Mihira Bhoja about 836. Under Bhoja and his ...
- Mahendraparvata
- (from the article "Jayavarman II") ...Indrapura, on the lower Mekong River east of Kampong (Kompong) Cham; then, moving northwards, at Hariharalaya, southeast of present-day Siemreab (Siem Reap); and then at Mahendraparvata, in the region just ...
- Mahendravarman I
- (from the article "Pallava Dynasty") ...(7th century) at Mahabalipuram (Mamallapuram), once a flourishing port. The mother of the Pallava ruler Simhavisnu (mid-6th century) may have been a Christian. Mahendravarman I wrote (c. 620) the Mattavilasa-prahasana, ...
- Maher, Bill
- American comedian and talk-show host known for his acerbic political commentary. [1 Related Articles]
- Maher, Joseph
- Irish-born American actor who, over the course of his more than 40-year career, filled a variety of character parts on television, in such motion pictures as Heaven Can Wait and ...
- Maherero
- (from the article "Namibia") ...the southward-moving Herero and the northward-migrating Nama. In 1870 a peace treaty was signed with the Germans on the border of Herero country. Meanwhile, largely as a result of war ...
- Maherero, Samuel
- (from the article "Namibia") ...reduced the Herero people by about 90 percent (80-85 percent dead, 5-10 percent in exile). The Nama resistance war came late because a key letter from Maherero's son and successor, ...
- Mahesh Yogi, Maharishi
- Hindu religious leader who introduced the practice of transcendental meditation (TM) to the West. [4 Related Articles]
- Maheshe, Serge
- (from the article "Congo, Democratic Republic of the") ...the civilian population and forced some 650,000 people to flee their homes. Other violent episodes were symptomatic of the unsettled conditions along the entire eastern border. Congolese journalist Serge Maheshe, ...
- Maheshwar
- town, western Madhya Pradesh state, central India. It lies just north of the Narmada River. It is located on the ancient site of Mahesvari, the capital (c. 200 BC) of ...
- Mahesvari
- (from the article "Saptamatrka") ..."Seven Divine Mothers"), in Hinduism, a group of seven mother-goddesses, each of whom is the sakti, or female counterpart, of a god. They are Brahmani, Mahesvari, Kaumari, Vaisnavi, Varahi, Indrani, ...
- Mahesvari
- (from the article "Maheshwar") town, western Madhya Pradesh state, central India. It lies just north of the Narmada River. It is located on the ancient site of Mahesvari, the capital (c. 200 BC) of ...
- Mahfouz, Naguib
- Egyptian novelist and screenplay writer, who was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1988, the first Arabic writer to be so honoured. [5 Related Articles]
- Mahfuz
- (from the article "Adal") ...raids and skirmishes. In the 16th century, Adal rose briefly to international importance by launching a series of more serious attacks. The first phase, in which the forces of Adal ...
- Mahi River
- stream in western India, rising in the western Vindhya Range, just south of Sardarpur, and flowing northward through Madhya Pradesh state. Turning northwest, it enters Rajasthan state and then turns ...
- Mahikavati
- (from the article "Mumbai") ...Point was probably built during the rule of Shilahara chiefs from the Konkan coast (9th-13th century). Under the Yadavas of Devagiri (later Daulatabad; 1187-1318) the settlement of Mahikavati (Mahim) on ...
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