Encyclopædia Britannica Australia -

Encyclopedias since 1768

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dasnami sannyasin ... Davenant, Sir William

dasnami sannyasin: Hindu Saiva ascetic who belongs to one of the 10 orders (dasnami, "ten names") established by the philosopher Sankara in the 8th century AD and still flourishing in India today. The 10 orders are Aranya, Asrama, Bharati, Giri, Parvata, Puri, ...
Dass, Petter: Norwegian poet who, in an age of pedantry and artifice, stands out among his contemporaries for the vivid freshness, everyday language, and common appeal of his works. He is the first writer in Dano-Norwegian literature to strike a genuinely Norwegian ...
Dassault Industries: French company with major aerospace-related subsidiaries specializing in the production of military and civil aircraft; computer-based design, manufacturing, and product-management systems; and aviation simulators. Its primary subsidiary, founded by French aircraft designer Marcel Dassault at the end of World War ...
Dassault, Marcel: French aircraft designer and industrialist whose companies built the most successful military aircraft in Europe in the decades after World War II.
dassie rat: a medium-sized rodent adapted to life among rocky outcrops in the desert hills and plateaus of southwestern Africa. The dassie rat weighs 170 to 300 grams (6 to 11 ounces) and has a squirrel-like body 14 to 21 cm (5.5 ...
dastgah: in the art music of Iran, a set of notes, their special characteristics, and an associated group of traditional melodies that constitute a basis for improvised performance. The dastgah and the Arabic maqam (q.v.) are similar systems, reflecting a period ...
Dasvant: a leading Indian Mughal artist, cited by Abu-ul-Fazl 'Allami, the historiographer of the emperor Akbar's court, as having surpassed all painters to become "the first master of the age."
dasyurid: any member of a family (Dasyuridae) of marsupial mammals that includes the native cats, marsupial mice and rats, and their allies. All of the approximately 50 species occur in New Guinea, the Aru Islands, Australia, and Tasmania.
Daszynski, Ignacy: Polish socialist leader and patriot who was prominent in the restoration of the Polish Republic after World War I.
data compression: the process of reducing the amount of data needed for the storage or transmission of a given piece of information, typically by the use of encoding techniques. Compression predates digital technology, having been used in Morse Code, which assigned the ...
data encryption: the process of disguising information as "ciphertext," or data unintelligible to an unauthorized person. Conversely, decryption, or decipherment, is the process of converting ciphertext back into its original format. Manual encryption has been used since Roman times, but the term ...
database: any collection of data, or information, that is specially organized for rapid search and retrieval by a computer. Databases are structured to facilitate the storage, retrieval, modification, and deletion of data in conjunction with various data-processing operations. A database management ...
date palm: (Phoenix dactylifera), tree of the palm family (Arecaceae, or Palmae), found in the Canary Islands, northern Africa, the Middle East, Pakistan, India, and the U.S. state of California. The date palm grows about 23 metres (75 feet) ...
Datia: city, north-central Madhya Pradesh state, central India. It takes its name from Dantavakra, a mythological demon ruler of the area. The city is a major road and rail junction and conducts a heavy trade in grain and cotton goods. Sorghum, ...
dating: in geology, determining a chronology or calendar of events in the history of the Earth, using to a large degree the evidence of organic evolution in the sedimentary rocks accumulated through geologic time in marine and continental environments. To date ...
Datini, Francesco: Italian international merchant and banker whose business and private papers, preserved in Prato, constitute one of the most important archives of the economic history of the Middle Ages.
Datiscaceae: family of the begonia order (Begoniales) of flowering plants, with three genera. The two species of Octomeles, among the tallest trees in the ebony forests of Malaysia, and Tetrameles nudiflora, a tree from south-central Asia, have male and female blooms ...
Dato Iradier, Eduardo: Spanish statesman, leader of the Conservative Party from 1913 to 1921, and three-time premier. He instituted various reforms but proved unable to deal effectively with unrest or to heal the divisions within his party.
datolite: an uncommon mineral, calcium borosilicate, CaBSiO₄(OH), that occurs as white or colourless veins and cavity linings in basic igneous rocks and in metallic-ore veins. Some notable deposits exist in the United States: Westfield, Mass.; Bergen Hill, N.J.; and the Lake ...
Datta, Michael Madhusudan: poet and dramatist, the first great poet of modern Bengali literature.
Datura: genus of plants of the potato family Solanaceae (q.v.; order Solanales), several species of which are collected for use as drugs and others of which are cultivated for their large, trumpet-shaped, fragrant flowers.
Daubenton, Louis-Jean-Marie: French naturalist who was a pioneer in the fields of comparative anatomy and paleontology.
Dauberval, Jean: French ballet dancer, teacher, and choreographer often credited with establishing the comic ballet as a genre.
Daubigny, Charles-Francois: French painter whose landscapes introduced into the naturalism of the mid-19th century an overriding concern for the accurate analysis and depiction of natural light through the use of colour, greatly influencing the Impressionist painters of the late 19th century.
Daubler, Theodor: German poet whose extraordinary vitality, poetic vision, and optimism contrast sharply with the despair expressed by many writers of his time.
Daubree, Gabriel-Auguste: French geochemist and a pioneer in the application of experimental methods to the study of diverse geologic phenomena.
Daud Khan, Mohammad: Afghan politician who overthrew the monarchy of Mohammad Zahir Shah in 1973 to establish Afghanistan as a republic. He served as the country's president from 1973 to 1978.
Daudet, Alphonse: French short-story writer and novelist, now remembered chiefly as the author of sentimental tales of provincial life in the south of France.
Daudet, Leon: French journalist and novelist, the most virulent and bitterly satirical polemicist of his generation in France, whose literary reputation rests largely upon his journalistic work and his vivid memoirs.
Daugavpils: city, southeastern Latvia. It lies along the Western Dvina (Daugava) River. In the 1270s the Brothers of the Sword, a branch of the Teutonic Knights, founded the fortress of Dunaburg, 12 miles (19 km) above the modern site. The fortress ...
Daugherty, Harry Micajah: American lawyer and political manager for Warren G. Harding who was accused of corruption during his tenure as Harding's attorney general (1921-24).
Daughters of the American Revolution: patriotic society organized October 11, 1890, and chartered by Congress December 2, 1896. Membership is limited to direct lineal descendants of soldiers or others of the Revolutionary period who aided the cause of independence; applicants must have reached 18 years ...
Daukantas, Simanas: historian who was the first to write a history of Lithuania in Lithuanian and a pioneer of the Lithuanian national renaissance.
Daulat: an important Mughal painter who worked during the reigns of both the emperors Akbar and Jahangir and painted under Shah Jahan as well.
Daulatabad: village and ancient city, Maharashtra state, western India. Founded in the late 12th century by King Bhillam of the Yadava dynasty, it was a major fortress and administrative centre in medieval times. The fortress, located in and around a large ...
Daumier, Honore: prolific French caricaturist, painter, and sculptor especially renowned for his cartoons and drawings satirizing 19th-century French politics and society. His paintings, though hardly known during his lifetime, helped introduce techniques of Impressionism into modern art.
Daun, Leopold Joseph, Count von: field marshal who was the Austrian commander in chief during the Seven Years' War against Prussia (1756-63).
Daunou, Pierre-Claude-Francois: French statesman, theorist of liberalism, and historian.
Dauphin: town, southwestern Manitoba, Canada. It lies along the Vermilion River just west of Dauphin Lake, 201 miles (323 km) by road northwest of Winnipeg. The French trader and explorer La Verendrye visited the lake in 1739 and named it for ...
dauphin: title of the eldest son of a king of France, the heir apparent to the French crown, from 1350 to 1830. The title was established by the royal house of France through the purchase of lands known as the Dauphine ...
Dauphin: county, central Pennsylvania, U.S., bounded to the north by Mahantango Creek, to the west by the Susquehanna River, and to the south by Conewago Creek. The topography rises from a piedmont region in the south to ridge-and-valley mountains in the ...
Dauphin Island: island in the Gulf of Mexico, at the entrance to Mobile Bay off the southwest coast of Alabama, U.S., about 30 miles (50 km) south of Mobile. Included in Mobile county, the island is about 15 miles (25 km) long.
Dauphine: historic and cultural region encompassing the southeastern French departements of Isere, Hautes-Alpes, and Drome and coextensive with the former province of Dauphine.
Dauphine Alps: western spur of the Cottian Alps (q.v.) in southeastern France, lying between the Arc and Isere river valleys (north) and the upper Durance River valley (south). Many peaks rise to more than 10,000 feet (3,050 m), with Barre des Ecrins ...
Daura: town and traditional emirate, Katsina state, northern Nigeria. The town lies in a savanna zone at the intersection of roads from Katsina town, Kano, Zango, and Zinder (Niger). An ancient settlement, the name of which means "blacksmith" in the Tuareg ...
Dauser, Sue Sophia: American nurse and naval officer responsible for preparing the Navy Nurse Corps for World War II and then overseeing the group, who simultaneously worked for parity of rank and pay for female officers and their male counterparts.
Dausset, Jean: French hematologist and immunologist whose studies of the genetic basis of the immunological reaction earned him a share (with George Snell and Baruj Benacerraf) of the 1980 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine.
Davangere: town, central Karnataka (formerly Mysore) state, southern India. A major road and rail junction, it supports a large-scale textile industry and is a trading centre for cotton and grain. The surrounding villages produce handloomed cotton and wool. Several colleges affiliated ...
Davao City: city, southeastern Mindanao Island, Philippines. It lies at the mouth of the Davao River near the head of Davao Gulf. The city is the leading regional centre for southeastern Mindanao and encompasses about 50 small ports in its commercial sphere. ...
Davel, Jean-Abraham-Daniel: Swiss popular leader, folk hero of the canton of the Vaud, who led the Vaudois separatist movement against the rule of Bern (1723).
Davenant, Sir William: English poet, playwright, and theatre manager who was made poet laureate on the strength of such successes as The Witts (licensed 1634), a comedy; the masques The Temple of Love, Britannia Triumphans, and Luminalia; and a volume of poems, Madagascar ...