Encyclopædia Britannica Australia -

Encyclopedias since 1768

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Ramakrishna Mission ... Ramsay, Allan

Ramakrishna Mission: religious society that carries out extensive educational and philanthropic work in India and is also the foremost exponent in Western countries of a modern version of Advaita Vedanta-a school of orthodox Indian philosophy.
Raman effect: change in the wavelength of light that occurs when a light beam is deflected by molecules. The phenomenon is named for Sir Chandrasekhara Venkata Raman, who discovered it in 1928. When a beam of light traverses a dust-free, transparent sample ...
Raman, Sir Chandrasekhara Venkata: Indian physicist whose work was influential in the growth of science in India. He was the recipient of the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1930 for the discovery that when light traverses a transparent material, some of the light that ...
Ramana Maharshi: Hindu philosopher and yogi called "Great Master," "Bhagavan" (the Lord), and "the Sage of Arunachala," whose position on monism (the identity of the individual soul and the creator of souls) and maya (illusion) parallels that of Sankara (c. AD 700-750). ...
Ramananda: also called Ramanand, or Ramadatta North Indian Brahman, fifth in succession in the lineage of the philosopher-mystic Ramanuja and founder of the bhakti (devotional) cult of Rama, the incarnation of Lord Vishnu known as the Ramanandi, or Ramavat, sect.
Ramanathapuram: town, Ramanathapuram district, Tamil Nadu state, southeastern India. A former capital of the Maravan rajas, it produces textiles and jewelry and has two colleges affiliated with Madurai-Kamaraj University. Its name refers to the Hindu deity Rama.
Ramanuja: South Indian Brahman theologian and philosopher, the single most influential thinker of devotional Hinduism. After a long pilgrimage, Ramanuja settled in Srirangam, where he organized temple worship and founded centres to disseminate his doctrine of devotion to the god Vishnu ...
Ramanujan, Srinivasa: Indian mathematician whose contributions to the theory of numbers include pioneering discoveries of the properties of the partition function.
Ramapithecus: fossil primate genus dating from the Middle and Late Miocene epochs (about 16.6 to 5.3 million years ago). For a time in the 1960s and '70s Ramapithecus was thought to be the first direct ancestor of modern humans.
Ramat Gan: city, west-central Israel, on the Plain of Sharon just east of Tel Aviv-Yafo. Founded in 1921, it is the largest satellite city in the Tel Aviv-Yafo metropolitan area, with fine residential quarters, extensive parks and gardens, including a national park, ...
Ramathibodi I: founder and first king (1351-69) of the Thai kingdom of Ayutthaya.
Ramatirtha: Hindu religious leader known for the highly personal and poetic manner in which he taught what he styled "Practical Vedanta," using common experiences to illustrate the divine nature of man. For Ramatirtha, any object whatever could be approached as a ...
Ramayana: shorter of the two great epic poems of India, the other being the Mahabharata ("Great Epic of the Bharata Dynasty"). The Ramayana was composed in Sanskrit, probably not before 300 BC, by the poet ...
Ramazan Dynasty: Turkmen dynasty (c. 1352-c. 1610) that ruled in the Cukurova (Cilicia) region of southern Anatolia.
Ramazzini, Bernardino: Italian physician, considered a founder of occupational medicine.
Rambert, Dame Marie: ballet producer, director, and teacher who founded Ballet Rambert, the oldest English ballet company still performing.
Rambler, The: a twopenny sheet issued twice weekly in London by the publisher John Payne between 1750 and 1752, each issue containing a single anonymous essay; 208 such periodical essays appeared, all but five written by Samuel Johnson. Johnson's intention in this ...
Rambouillet: breed of sheep, developed from selections of a few hundred of the best Merino sheep of Spain in 1786 and 1799 by the French government at its national sheepfold at Rambouillet, Fr. First imported to the United States in 1840, ...
Rambouillet: town, Yvelines departement, Paris region, northern France, just southwest of Versailles. Flanked by its famous chateau and surrounded by an extensive forest, it is a favoured tourist spot for Parisians. The chateau, built in 1375 by a courtier of Charles ...
Rambouillet, Catherine de Vivonne, marquise de: (marchioness of ) aristocratic hostess who exerted a powerful influence on the development of French literature in the first half of the 17th century.
rambutan: (Nephelium lappaceum), tree of the soapberry family (Sapindaceae). It is native to Malaysia, where it is commonly cultivated for its tasty fruit, also called rambutan. The bright-red, oval fruit, about the size of a small hen's egg, is covered with ...
Ramcaritmanas: ("Sacred Lake of the Acts of Rama"), version, written in a dialect of Hindi, of the Sanskrit epic poem the Ramayana, one of the masterpieces of medieval Hindu literature and a work with significant influence on modern Hinduism. Written in ...
Rameau, Jean-Philippe: French composer of the late Baroque period, best known today for his harpsichord music but in his lifetime also famous as a musical theorist and a composer of operas.
Ramenskoye: city and centre of a rayon (sector), Moscow oblast (province), western Russia. It lies southeast of the city of Moscow. In the 1820s Ramenskoye became the site of one of Russia's first cotton factories and soon developed as an industrial ...
Ramesseum: funerary temple of Ramses II (1279-13 BC), erected on the west bank of the Nile River at Thebes in Upper Egypt. The temple, famous for its 57-foot (17-metre) seated statue of Ramses II (of which only fragments are left), was ...
Rameswaram: island, southeastern Tamil Nadu state, southeastern India. It forms part of Adams Bridge, a series of coral reef islands connecting India and Sri Lanka. The island contains a temple that is one of the most venerated of all Hindu shrines. ...
ramie: any of several fibre-yielding plants of the genus Boehmeria, belonging to the nettle family (Urticaceae), and their fibre, one of the bast fibre (q.v.) group. Boehmeria nivea, native to China, is the species usually cultivated for fibre, although B. nivea ...
Ramillies, Battle of: (May 23, 1706), victory won by Allied (Anglo-Dutch) forces led by the Duke of Marlborough over the French during the War of the Spanish Succession. The victory led to the Allied capture of the whole north and east of the ...
Ramiro I: first king of Aragon, who reigned from 1035. He was the illegitimate son of King Sancho III of Navarre. During his father's lifetime he governed this territory and was made king of it by his father's will. In 1045 he ...
Ramiro II: king of Aragon from 1134 to 1137. He was the third son of Sancho V Ramirez. His elder brother, Alfonso I the Battler, left no issue and bequeathed his kingdom to the military orders. Ramiro, who had entered a monastery ...
Ramiro II: king of Leon and Asturias in Christian Spain from 931 to 951. The second son of King Ordono II, he became king on the abdication of his elder brother, Alfonso IV. Ramiro was an exceptional general who scored several major ...
ramjet: air-breathing jet engine that operates with no major moving parts. It relies on the craft's forward motion to draw in air and on a specially shaped intake passage to compress the air for combustion. After fuel sprayed into the engine ...
Ramkhamhaeng: third king of Sukhothai in what is now north-central Thailand, who made his young and struggling kingdom into the first major Tai state in 13th-century Southeast Asia.
Ramla: city in Israel, on the coastal plain southeast of Tel Aviv-Yafo. Ramla is the only city founded by the Arabs in Palestine. It was established in 716 by the caliph Sulayman ibn 'Abd al-Malik (reigned 715-717), who made it the ...
rammed earth: building material made by compacting certain soils, used by many civilizations. The most durable of the earth-building forms, rammed earth may be used for making building blocks or for constructing whole walls in place, layer by layer. In making building ...
Ramnicu Valcea: city, capital of Valcea judet (county), south-central Romania, on the Olt River. Documented as a town in the late 14th century, it was a local market town during the Middle Ages. Historic buildings in the city include the house of ...
Ramo, Simon: American engineer who made notable contributions to electronics and was chief scientist (1954-58) of the U.S. intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) program.
Ramon Berenguer I: count of Barcelona from 1035 to 1076.
Ramon Berenguer II: count of Barcelona who reigned jointly with his twin brother, Berenguer Ramon II, from 1076 to 1082.
Ramon Berenguer III: count of Barcelona during whose reign (1097-1131) independent Catalonia reached the summit of its historical greatness, spreading its ships over the western Mediterranean and acquiring new lands from the southern Pyrennees to Provence. He was also known as Ramon Berenguer ...
Ramon Berenguer IV: count of Barcelona from 1131 to 1162, regent of Provence from 1144 to 1157, and ruling prince of Aragon from 1137 to 1162.
Ramon y Cajal, Santiago: Spanish histologist who (with Camillo Golgi) received the 1906 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine for establishing the neuron, or nerve cell, as the basic unit of nervous structure. This finding was instrumental in the recognition of the neuron's fundamental ...
Ramones, the: American band that influenced the rise of punk rock on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean. The original members were Joey Ramone (byname of Jeffrey Hyman; b. May 19, 1951, New York, New York, U.S., -d. April 15, 2001, New ...
Ramos, Fidel: military leader and politician who was president of the Philippines from 1992 to 1998. He was generally regarded as one of the most effective presidents in that nation's history.
Ramos, Graciliano: Brazilian regional novelist whose works explore the lives of characters shaped by the rural misery of northeastern Brazil.
Ramos-Horta, Jose: East Timorese political activist who, along with Bishop Carlos F.X. Belo, received the 1996 Nobel Prize for Peace for their efforts to bring peace and independence to East Timor, a former Portuguese possession that was under Indonesian control from 1975 ...
Rampal, Jean-Pierre: French flutist who brought the flute to new prominence as a concert instrument and demonstrated the appropriateness of the flute as a solo instrument adaptable to a wide range of music, from Baroque masterpieces and English folk songs to improvised ...
rampion: any member of the genus Phyteuma, of the bellflower family (Campanulaceae), consisting of about 40 species of perennial plants with long, clustered, hornlike buds and flowers. The genus is native to sunny fields and meadows of the Mediterranean region.
Rampolla, Mariano: Italian prelate who played a notable role in the liberalization of the Vatican under Leo XIII.
Rampur: city, northwestern Uttar Pradesh state, northern India. The city lies along the Kosi River, at a road and rail junction. A trade centre for grain and other agricultural products, its industry includes sugar processing, manufacturing, and cotton milling. Rampur is ...
Ramsay, Allan: Scottish-born painter, one of the foremost 18th-century British portraitists.