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  • Raine, Kathleen (British writer)
    English poet, scholar, and critic noted for her mystical and visionary poetry....
  • Raine, Kathleen Jessie (British writer)
    English poet, scholar, and critic noted for her mystical and visionary poetry....
  • Raine, Norman Reilly (American screenwriter)
    Screenplay: Heinz Herald, Geza Herczeg, Norman Reilly Raine for The Life of Emile ZolaOriginal Story: William A. Wellman and Robert Carson for A Star Is BornCinematography: Karl Freund for The Good EarthArt Direction: Stephen Goosson for......
  • Rainer, Luise (German-American actress)
    Other Nominees...
  • Rainer, Yvonne (American choreographer and filmmaker)
    American avant-garde choreographer and filmmaker whose work in both disciplines often featured the medium’s most fundamental elements rather than meeting conventional expectations....
  • Rainey, Gertrude Malissa Nix (American singer)
    American singer, the “mother of the blues,” recognized as the first great black professional blues vocalist....
  • Rainey, Joseph Hayne (American politician)
    former American slave, the first black to serve in the U.S. House of Representatives (1870–79)....
  • Rainey, Ma (American singer)
    American singer, the “mother of the blues,” recognized as the first great black professional blues vocalist....
  • rainfall (weather)
    all liquid and solid water particles that fall from clouds and reach the ground. These particles include drizzle, rain, snow, snow pellets, ice crystals, and hail. (This article contains a brief treatment of precipitation. For more-extensive coverage, see climate: Precipitation.)...
  • rainfed agriculture
    Attempts to increase the amount of precipitation from clouds by seeding them with salt or silver iodide have been made for nearly three decades. Both aircraft and ground generators have been employed, but the techniques are typically beyond the means of an individual farmer. Results suggest that cloud modification is entirely possible, but the proof of increased rainfall at a level of......
  • rainforest
    luxuriant forest, generally composed of tall, broad-leaved trees and usually found in wet tropical uplands and lowlands around the Equator....
  • Rainger, Ralph (American composer)
    ...Korngold for The Adventures of Robin HoodScoring: Alfred Newman for Alexander’s Ragtime BandSong: “Thanks for the Memory” from The Big Broadcast of 1938; music by Ralph Rainger, lyrics by Leo RobinHonorary Award: J. Arthur Ball, Deanna Durbin, Mickey Rooney, Harry M. WarnerHonorary Award:......
  • rainha dos cárceres da Grécia, A (work by Lins)
    ...that secured his reputation: Nove, Novena (1966; Nine, Novena), consisting of nine narratives; Avalovara (1973; Eng. trans. Avalovara), a novel; and A rainha dos cárceres da Grécia (1976; The Queen of the Prisons of Greece). These works subject fictional narrative to an order determined by external elements of......
  • Rainhill Trials (locomotive competition)
    ...second project, can logically be thought of as the first fully evolved railway to be built. It was intended to provide an extensive passenger service and to rely on locomotive traction alone. The Rainhill locomotive trials were conducted in 1829 to assure that those prime movers would be adequate to the demands placed on them and that adhesion was practicable. Stephenson’s entry, the Roc...
  • Rainier III, prince de Monaco (prince of Monaco)
    31st hereditary ruler of the principality of Monaco (1949–2005). He was the son of Prince Pierre, count de Polignac, and Princess Charlotte de Monaco, daughter of Louis II, prince de Monaco. Rainier became a Grimaldi (i.e., received his mother’s family name) in accord with a sovereign ordinance of March 18, 1920....
  • Rainier, Mount (mountain, Washington, United States)
    highest mountain (14,410 feet [4,392 metres]) in the state of Washington, U.S., and in the Cascade Range. It lies about 40 miles (64 km) southeast of the city of Tacoma, within Mount Rainier National Park. The mountain, geologically young, was formed by successive lava flows from eruptions that began about one million year...
  • Rainilaiarivony (prime minister of Madagascar)
    ...and French Roman Catholics vied for supremacy, while businessmen obtained excessive concessions. This policy led to Radama’s overthrow by the Merina oligarchy in 1863. The head of the army, Rainilaiarivony, a Hova, became prime minister and remained in power by marrying three queens in succession: Rasoherina, Ranavalona II, and Ranavalona III. He embarked on a program of modernization,.....
  • Rainis (Latvian author)
    Latvian poet and dramatist whose works were outstanding as literature and for their assertion of national freedom and social consciousness....
  • Rainmaker, The (film by Coppola)
    ...Courage Under Fire (1996). This portrayal attracted the attention of director Francis Ford Coppola, who cast Damon as a novice lawyer opposite Danny DeVito in The Rainmaker (1997)....
  • rainmaking
    any process of increasing the amount of precipitation discharged from a cloud. Primitive methods, such as rain dances or the throwing of pebbles into water, failed to produce rain, but modern techniques of seeding supercooled clouds—that is, those clouds containing liquid water droplets at temperatures below 0 °C (32 °F)—with frozen...
  • Rainolds, John (British philosopher)
    Using Aristotle’s system of causal explanation, the 16th-century British philosopher John Rainolds defined emotion as follows: the efficient cause of emotions is God, who implanted them; the material cause is good and evil human things; the formal cause is a commotion of the soul, impelled by the sight of things; and the final cause is seeking good and fleeing evil. The American philosopher...
  • Rains Came, The (film)
    Very rapid camera movements may express a sudden surge of emotion or a contemplated action, as in the suicide from Umberto D. In The Rains Came (1939), as the heroine realizes with horror that she has drunk from a glass that may be contaminated with typhus, the camera rushes forward to a close-up on the fatal glass, shining in the darkness.......
  • Rains, Claude (British actor)
    British motion picture and stage character actor noted for his smooth, distinguished voice, polished, ironic style, and intelligent portrayal of a variety of roles, ranging from villains to sympathetic gentlemen....
  • Rains, William Claude (British actor)
    British motion picture and stage character actor noted for his smooth, distinguished voice, polished, ironic style, and intelligent portrayal of a variety of roles, ranging from villains to sympathetic gentlemen....
  • Rainsborough, Thomas (English soldier)
    English soldier and republican who fought for Parliament during the English Civil Wars....
  • rainwash (geology)
    detachment of soil particles by raindrop impact and their removal downslope by water flowing overland as a sheet instead of in definite channels or rills. A more or less uniform layer of fine particles is removed from the entire surface of an area, sometimes resulting in an extensive loss of rich topsoil. Sheet erosion commonly occurs on recently plowed fields or on other sites having poorly cons...
  • Rainwater, James (American physicist)
    American physicist who won a share of the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1975 for his part in determining the asymmetrical shapes of certain atomic nuclei....
  • Rainwater, Leo James (American physicist)
    American physicist who won a share of the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1975 for his part in determining the asymmetrical shapes of certain atomic nuclei....
  • Rainy Lake (lake, North America)
    narrow lake astride the Canadian-U.S. border, between the U.S. state of Minnesota and the Rainy River district of northwestern Ontario, Can. It has an area of 360 square miles (932 square km), is about 50 miles (80 km) long, 35 miles (56 km) of which form the international boundary, and has an average width of 5 miles (8 km) with a maximum of 27 miles (43 km). Its shores are irregular and deeply i...
  • rainy season (climate)
    ...of about 15° to 35° C (59° to 95° F). The dry season may last as long as eight months. An excess of rainfall over evaporation, leading to ephemeral river flow, occurs only during the wet season. The tropical grassland climate overlaps very broadly with that of savanna. As previously stated, these vegetation types differ little from each other, a savanna being merely ...
  • Raipur (India)
    city, capital of Chhattīsgaṛḥ state, central India. The community was founded in the 14th century by Rai Brahma Deo of the Ratanpur dynasty. It served as headquarters of the former Chhattīsgaṛḥ princely states division and was constituted a municipality in 1867. Today it is a food-processing (rice, wheat, cotton, and oilseeds) and sawmilling centre connect...
  • raʾīs (Arabian chieftain)
    ...according to the Assizes of the Court of the Bourgeois. Each national group retained its institutions. The Syrians, for example, maintained a court overseen by the rais (raʾīs), a chieftain of importance under the Frankish regime. An important element in the kingdom’s army, the corps of......
  • rais (Arabian chieftain)
    ...according to the Assizes of the Court of the Bourgeois. Each national group retained its institutions. The Syrians, for example, maintained a court overseen by the rais (raʾīs), a chieftain of importance under the Frankish regime. An important element in the kingdom’s army, the corps of......
  • Rais, Gilles de (French noble)
    Breton baron, marshal of France, and man of wealth whose distinguished career ended in a celebrated trial for satanism, abduction, and child murder. His name was later connected with the story of Bluebeard....
  • raise (mining)
    Vertical or subvertical connections between levels generally are driven from a lower level upward through a process called raising. Raises with diameters of two to five metres and lengths up to several hundred metres are often drilled by powerful raise-boring machines. The openings so created may be used as ore passes, waste passes, or ventilation openings. An underground vertical opening......
  • raise borer (mining)
    ...upward by a cable in a previously down-drilled pilot hole. A more significant step toward mechanized shaft raising occurred in 1962 when American mole manufacturers developed a device called a raise borer, in which the cutting head is rotated and pulled upward by a drill shaft in a down-drilled pilot hole, with the power unit being located at top of the pilot hole. The capacity of this......
  • raise climber (mining machinery)
    ...often by upward mining with men working from a cage hung from a cable through a small pilot hole drilled downward from above. In 1957 this procedure was improved by Swedish development of the raise climber, whose working cage climbs a rail fastened to the shaft wall and extends backward into the horizontal access tunnel into which the cage is retracted during a blast. Simultaneously in......
  • raised bog (geology)
    ...of Sphagnum are sufficient to maintain a wet, stagnant environment above the original water table represented by the lake surface. Thus, continued upward growth of the bog plants creates a raised bog. The raised bog is similar to the ordinary bog except that it does not lie in a depression but is raised above the surroundings. A moat containing some open water typically surrounds a......
  • raised bread (food)
    ...in much of the Middle East, Asia, and Africa. The principal grains used in such breads are corn (maize), barley, millet, and buckwheat—all lacking sufficient gluten (elastic protein) to make raised breads—and wheat and rye. Millet cakes and chapaties (crisp, whole-meal cakes) are popular types in India. Corn is used to make the small, flat cakes known as tortillas, important......
  • Raised Chair with Geese (work by Polke)
    ...While Polke’s interests, including photography and experimenting with a diverse range of painting materials, have led him to eschew a signature style, some works—such as Raised Chair with Geese (1987–88), with its interwoven pictorial references (a rendering of a looming guard tower, line drawings of geese, and printed fabric with a pattern of.....
  • raised work (embroidery)
    form of embroidery practiced in England in the 17th century, characterized by biblical and mythological scenes of padded plants, animals, birds, and the like in high relief. Panels, which were used as pictures or decorative coverings for mirror frames, caskets, and so on, were ornamented with padded flowers, fruit, and human figures, sometimes with details such as hands in wax....
  • raised-edge polygon (ice wedge)
    ...Upturning of strata adjacent to the ice wedge may make a ridge of ground on the surface on each side of the wedge, thus enclosing the polygons. Such polygons are lower in the centre and are called low-centre polygons or raised-edge polygons and may contain a pond in the centre. Low-centre, or raised-edge, polygons indicate that ice wedges are actually growing and that the sediments are being......
  • Raisen (India)
    city, central Madhya Pradesh state, central India. The city lies at the foot of a spur of the Vindhya Range, on which stands an ancient sandstone fort with several palaces and a mosque. A strategic community in the history of eastern Mālwa, Raisen was the 16th-century stronghold of Silhari, a Rājput (warrior caste) chief, and was an important administrative centre...
  • raisin (fruit)
    dried fruit of certain varieties of grape. Raisin grapes were grown as early as 2000 bc in Persia and Egypt, and dried grapes are mentioned in the Bible (Numbers 6:3) during the time of Moses. David (Israel’s future king) was presented with “a hundred clusters of raisins” (1 Samuel 25:18), probably sometime during the period 1110–1070 bc. Ea...
  • Raisin in the Sun, A (play by Hansberry)
    But no one in African American theatre could have predicted the huge critical and popular success that came to Chicagoan Lorraine Hansberry after her first play, A Raisin in the Sun, opened at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre on Broadway in March 1959. A searching portrayal of an African American family confronting the problems of upward mobility and integration, ......
  • Raisin in the Sun, A (film by Petrie [1961])
    ...and television shows over the next 50 years. Among Davis and Dee’s most notable joint stage appearances were those in A Raisin in the Sun (1959; Dee also starred in the film version in 1961) and the satiric Purlie Victorious (1961), which Davis wrote; Davis and Dee also appeared in the film version of the latter (Gone Ar...
  • raisin tree (plant)
    (species Hovenia dulcis), shrub or tree, of the buckthorn family (Rhamnaceae), native to East Asia and sometimes cultivated in other regions. It is so-named because the fruit resembles a raisin in size and colour....
  • Raisina Hill (hill, Delhi, India)
    ...in 1911 to transfer the capital of India from Calcutta (now Kolkata) to Delhi, and a town planning committee was formed, a site was chosen three miles south of the existing city of Delhi, around Raisina Hill. This was a well-drained, healthy area between the ridge and the river that provided ample room for expansion. The Raisina Hill, commanding a view of the entire area, stood 50 feet (15......
  • raising (metalwork)
    ...utensils and artifacts. The simplest metalwork technique for making hollowware is to join pieces of sheet metal together, using rivets, solder, or other means. A riveted bucket is a simple example. Raising, a technique dating from at least the 3rd millennium bc, is commonly used for hollowware in silver, copper, and other malleable metals: a disk of sheet metal is gradually shaped...
  • Raising Arizona (film by Joel and Ethan Coen)
    ...company that granted them complete creative control. The films that followed highlighted the Coens’ versatility and firmly established their reputation as idiosyncratic talents. Raising Arizona (1987) was an irreverent comedy about babies, Harley Davidsons, and high explosives, and the period drama Miller’s Crossing (1990) focused ...
  • Raising of Jairus’ Daughter, The (painting by Overbeck)
    ...history painting—produced the least successful results, and they came closest to realizing their intentions on a small scale in highly finished watercolours and drawings, as in Overbeck’s “The Raising of Jairus’ Daughter” (1814). Only Joseph Anton Koch and Cornelius, who were both older and more experienced, achieved great vigour in their history paintings, co...
  • Raising of Lazarus, The (painting by Tanner)
    ...were being exhibited at the annual Paris Salons, at which, in 1896, he was awarded an honourable mention for Daniel in the Lions’ Den (1895). The Raising of Lazarus (c. 1897), also biblical in theme, won a medal at the Paris Salon of 1897, a rare achievement for an American artist. Later that year the French government purchased t...
  • Raising of the Cross, The (painting by Rubens)
    The Twelve Years’ Truce prompted a major refurbishing of Flemish churches. The first of Rubens’ two great Antwerp triptychs, “The Raising of the Cross” (1610–11; Antwerp Cathedral), combined Italianate reflections of Tintoretto and Caravaggio with Flemish realism in a heroic affirmation of redemptive suffering. His second triptych for Antwerp’s cathedral, ...
  • raising, shaft (excavation)
    Handling cuttings is simplified when the shaft can be raised from an existing tunnel, since the cuttings then merely fall to the tunnel, where they are easily loaded into mine cars or trucks. This advantage has long been recognized in mining; where once an initial shaft has been sunk to provide access to and an opportunity for horizontal tunnels, most subsequent shafts are then raised from......
  • raison d’état (politics)
    ...a diplomat should have one master and one policy. He created the Ministry of External Affairs to centralize policy and to ensure his control of envoys as he pursued the raison d’état (national interest). Richelieu rejected the view that policy should be based on dynastic or sentimental concerns or a ruler’s wishes, holding instead that...
  • Raitenau, Wolf Dietrich von (Austrian archbishop)
    ...were acknowledged as princes of the Holy Roman Empire in 1278, and the city became the seat of their powerful ecclesiastical principality. Among the most notable of the prince-archbishops were Wolf Dietrich von Raitenau (reigned 1587–1612), who brought Italian Renaissance architecture and styles to the city, notably by offering commissions to the Italian architect Vincenzo Scamozzi......
  • Raitt, Bonnie (American musician)
    American singer, songwriter, and guitarist whose wide musical range encompassed blues, folk, rhythm and blues, pop, and country rock. Touring and recording with some of the leading session musicians and songwriters of her day, she became a successful recording artist in the 1970s but did not achieve stardom until 1990, when she won four Gram...
  • Raitt, Bonnie Lynn (American musician)
    American singer, songwriter, and guitarist whose wide musical range encompassed blues, folk, rhythm and blues, pop, and country rock. Touring and recording with some of the leading session musicians and songwriters of her day, she became a successful recording artist in the 1970s but did not achieve stardom until 1990, when she won four Gram...
  • Raitt, John Emmet (American actor-singer)
    American actor-singer (b. Jan. 29, 1917, Santa Ana, Calif.—d. Feb. 20, 2005, Pacific Palisades, Calif.), employed his lyrical baritone voice and strong good looks to create a powerful presence in leading roles on the musical stage. His success in the role of Curly in the road company of Oklahoma! led to his being cast as Billy Bigelow in the Broadway production of Carousel (19...
  • Raivata (temple, India)
    ...slope inland to the north. From it to the north runs a low, narrow, dissected range rising to Gorakhnāth (3,665 feet [1,117 m], believed to be an extinct volcano) in the broad mass of the Gīrnār Hills. The Gīr Range is considered to be sacred because of the ancient Jaina temple of Gīrnār (historically called Raivata, or Ujjayanta) situated on one of the...
  • Raivavae (island, French Polynesia)
    ...Islands were often incised with dense patterns of triangles, crescents, stars, and cross-hatching. The edges of such works were often notched in rows. Such lavish decoration covers carvings from Raivavae, including a few female figures with extremely summary facial features and indications of gorgets and headdresses. The same motifs cover small bowls, long-handled ladles, and broad-bladed......
  • raj (Indian history)
    The quarter century following the bitter Indian revolt of 1857–59, though spanning a peak of British imperial power in India, ended with the birth of nationalist agitation against the raj (British rule). For both Indians and British, the period was haunted with dark memories of the mutiny, and numerous measures were taken by the British raj to avoid another conflict. In 1885, however, the.....
  • Rāj Gond (people)
    There is no cultural uniformity among the Gond. The most developed are the Rāj Gond, who once had an elaborate feudal order. Local rajas, linked by ties of blood or marriage to a royal house, exercised authority over groups of villages. Aside from the fortified seats of the rajas, settlements were formerly of little permanence; cultivation, even though practiced with plows and oxen,......
  • Rāj-Nāndgaon (India)
    city, Madhya Pradesh state, central India, just north of the Seonāth River. It was the capital of the former Rāj Nāndgaon princely state, which merged with Durg district in 1948. It lies in a region of fertile plains, drained by several small tributaries of the Seonāth River and is mainly agricultural. A major road and rail junction, it is a trade and cotton-textile ce...
  • Raja (Indian philosopher)
    There are three commentaries on the Sāṃkhya-kārikā: that by Raja, much referred to but not extant; that by Gauḍapāda (7th century), on which there is a subcommentary Candrikā by Nārāyaṇatīrtha; and the Tattva-kaumudī by Vācaspati (9th century). The Sāṃkhya-sūtra...
  • rājā (Indian society)
    ...which went to war against Sudas. The Bharatas survived and continued to play an important role in historical tradition. In the Rigveda the head of a clan is called the raja; this term commonly has been translated as “king,” but more recent scholarship has suggested “chief” as more appropriate in this early context. If such a.....
  • Raja Abdullah (Malaysian sultan)
    ...British adviser to the sultan), which had been created as part of the Pangkor Engagement, a treaty between the British government and the Malay chiefs. Birch hoped through his influence to have Raja Abdullah accepted as sultan in Upper Perak and to modernize the traditional administrative system, under which government had been based on personal relationships between the sultan and the......
  • Raja Bhoja’s school (mosque, Dhar, India)
    ...an overthrown iron pillar (13th century) bearing a later inscription recording the visit of the Mughal emperor Akbar in 1598. Dhār also houses the Kamal Maula mausoleum and a mosque known as Raja Bhōja’s school, built in the 14th or 15th century; its name was derived from its paved slabs covered with inscriptions giving Sanskrit grammatical rules. Just north stands a 14th-c...
  • Raja clavata (fish)
    ...inches) more toward its maximum recorded width of 25 centimetres (10 inches) in males or 31 centimetres (1214 inches) in females. The males of European thornback rays (Raja clavata) are about 50 centimetres (20 inches) wide when they reach first maturity, about seven years after birth; females are 60 to 70 centimetres (24 to 28 inches) at......
  • Raja Dhilu (Indian historian)
    ...km). The national capital territory is bounded to the east by the state of Uttar Pradesh and on the north, west, and south by Haryana. It generally has been presumed that the city was named for Raja Dhilu, a king who reigned in the 1st century bc, and that the various names by which it has been known (Delhi, Dehli, Dilli, and Dhilli) have been corruptions of this name....
  • Raja Kechil (king of Johore)
    ...a people who came from the southern Celebes seeking trade opportunities. The Buginese were skilled and astute fighting men and were soon drawn into Malay political struggles. Daing Parani helped one Raja Kechil win the throne of the kingdom of Johore and then in 1722 shifted allegiance and aided Sulaiman, son of the deposed sultan, in winning back his father’s throne. In return, the Bugi...
  • Raja laevis (fish)
    As to the hundreds of stocks about which fisheries biologists know too little, most of them are not considered economically important enough to warrant more investigation. One species, the barn-door skate (Raja laevis), was an incidental catch of western North Atlantic fisheries in the second half of the 20th century. As the name suggests, this is a large fish, too big to go......
  • Raja Mahdi (Southeast Asian historian)
    ...Malay chiefs gradually became polarized into two camps—generally the lower-river versus the upper-river chiefs. The main issue concerned the lucrative collection of duties on tin exports. Raja Mahdi, the dispossessed son of the previous ruler in Klang (now Kelang), seized and held the prosperous town of Klang for two years with tacit approval of dissident upper-river chiefs. When the......
  • Rāja Yoga (Indian philosophy)
    Though Patañjali’s yoga is known as Rāja Yoga (that in which one attains to self-rule), Haṭha Yoga (haṭha = “violence,” “violent effort”: ha = “sun,” ṭha = “moon,” haṭha = “sun and moon,” breaths, or breaths travelling through the right and left nostril...
  • rājadharma (Indian philosopher)
    ...Śānti Parvan (“Book of Consolation,” 12th book) of the Mahābhārata, there is also a notable account of the origin of kingship and of rājadharma, or the dharma (law) of the king as king. Bhīṣma, who is discoursing, refers with approval to two different theories of the origin of kingship, both of w...
  • Rājagaha (ancient site, India)
    ...son Ajatashatru—who achieved the throne through patricide—implemented his father’s intentions within about 30 years. Ajatashatru strengthened the defenses of the Magadhan capital, Rajagrha, and built a small fort on the Ganges at Pataligrama, which was to become the famous capital Pataliputra (modern Patna). He then attacked and annexed Kashi and Koshala. He still had to......
  • Rajagopalachari, Chakravarti (Indian statesman)
    the only Indian governor-general of independent India. He became the founder and leader of the Swatantra (Independent) Party in 1959....
  • Rājagṛha (ancient site, India)
    ...son Ajatashatru—who achieved the throne through patricide—implemented his father’s intentions within about 30 years. Ajatashatru strengthened the defenses of the Magadhan capital, Rajagrha, and built a small fort on the Ganges at Pataligrama, which was to become the famous capital Pataliputra (modern Patna). He then attacked and annexed Kashi and Koshala. He still had to......
  • Rājahmundry (India)
    city, Andhra Pradesh state, southern India, at the head of the Godāvari River delta. In 1449 Rājahmundry was captured by Kapileśvara, the Orissa ruler. In 1757 it was ceded to the British. A railway bridge over the Godāvari, with 56 spans, is one of the longest railway bridges (9,036 feet [2,754 m]) in India....
  • Rajaʾi, Mohammad Ali (prime minister of Iran)
    Iranian politician who was prime minister of the Islamic Republic of Iran from 1980 to 1981....
  • Rajāʾī, Muḥammad ʿAlī (prime minister of Iran)
    Iranian politician who was prime minister of the Islamic Republic of Iran from 1980 to 1981....
  • rājākariya (Sri Lankan history)
    traditional system of land tenure in Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) until the early 19th century in which land was granted in exchange for services rendered. The services expected were of two kinds: (1) public works, such as road and bridge building or, in earlier days, the construction of irrigation works, and (2) special services elicited on the basis of a person’s caste-related occupation....
  • Rājamālā (Indian chronicle)
    The history of Tripura includes two distinct periods—the traditional, largely legendary period described in the Rājamālā, a chronicle of the supposed early kings (maharajas) of Tripura, and the period since about 1431–62, the reigning years of the great king Dharma Māṇikya. The Rājamālā, written in Bengali verse, w...
  • Rajamanickam (Indian actor, producer, and proprietor)
    ...outstanding Tamil company since the independence of India in 1947 has been the T.K.S. Brothers of Madras, famous for trick scenes and gorgeous settings. Also famous is the actor-producer-proprietor Rajamanickam, who specializes in mythological plays with an all-male cast, using horses, chariots, processions, replicas of temples, and even elephants....
  • Rajang River (river, Malaysia)
    river in East Malaysia (northwest Borneo), rising in the Iran Mountains and flowing southwest to Kapit, where it turns westward to complete its 350-mile (563-kilometre) course to the South China Sea. Its large, swampy delta includes Beruit Island, with a lighthouse at Sirik Point. In a region almost totally dependent on riverine transport, the Rajang River is navigable for 80 miles (130 km) to Sib...
  • Rajanya (Hindu caste)
    second highest in ritual status of the four varnas, or social classes, of Hindu India, traditionally the military or ruling class....
  • Rajapakse, Mahinda (prime minister of Sri Lanka)
    ...rebels had received too many concessions. The power struggle led Kumaratunga to call for new elections in 2004, and the UNP was defeated; Wickremesinghe was replaced as prime minister by the hawkish Mahinda Rajapakse. Later that year Kumaratunga faced further upheaval after Sri Lanka was devastated by a massive tsunami. Legally barred from running for a third term, she left office in 2005,......
  • Rājapālaiyam (India)
    city, Tamil Nādu state, southeastern India, at the eastern foot of the Western Ghāts. It is named after its Rāju inhabitants, Telugu speakers who migrated during the Vijayanagar (1336–1565) conquest....
  • Rājapālayam (India)
    city, Tamil Nādu state, southeastern India, at the eastern foot of the Western Ghāts. It is named after its Rāju inhabitants, Telugu speakers who migrated during the Vijayanagar (1336–1565) conquest....
  • Rājarāja I (Cōḷa-Gaṅga king)
    ...in the South Indian style, the Bṛhadīśvara, or Rājarājeśvara, temple, built at the Cōḻa capital of Thanjāvūr. A royal dedication of Rājarāja I, the temple was begun around 1003 and completed about seven years later. The main walls are raised in two stories, above which the superstructure rises to a height of 190...
  • Rājarāja III (Indian ruler)
    ...the mouth of the Ganges River in the north to the mouth of the Godāvari River in the south; he began building the great Jagannātha temple at Purī at the end of the 11th century. Rājarāja III ascended the throne in 1198 and did nothing to resist the Muslims of Bengal, who invaded Orissa in 1206. Rājarāja’s son Anaṅgabhīma III,...
  • Rājarājeśvara (temple, Thanjāvūr, India)
    The South Indian style is most fully realized in the splendid Bṛhadīśvara temple at Thanjāvūr, built about 1003–10 by Rājarāja the Great, and the great temple at Gaṅgaikoṇḍacōḻapuram, built about 1025 by his son Rājendra Cōla. Subsequently, the style became increasingly elaborate—the com...
  • Rājārām (Marāṭhā ruler)
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