Kamala Das: … (1967; “Cold”) and the memoir Balyakalasmaranakal (1987; “Memories of Childhood”). Perhaps her best-known work was an autobiography, which first appeared as a series of columns in the weekly Malayalanadu, then in Malayalam as Ente Katha (1973), and finally in English as My Story (1976). A shockingly intimate work, it came…

Balykchy, town, capital of Ysyk-Köl oblasty (province), northeastern Kyrgyzstan. It is a port located on the western shore of Lake Ysyk (Issyk-Kul) and is linked to Frunze, about 87 miles (140 km) north-northwest. Balykchy’s economy centres on a food industry, including meat-packing and cereal

Auguste Rodin: Discords and triumphs of Auguste Rodin: …the Victor Hugo and the Balzac were even more serious.

Honoré de Balzac was a French literary artist who produced a vast number of novels and short stories collectively called La Comédie humaine (The Human Comedy). He helped to establish the traditional form of the novel and is generally considered to be one of the greatest novelists of all time.

Jean-Louis Guez de Balzac was a man of letters and critic, one of the original members of the Académie Française; he had a great influence on the development of Classical French prose. After studies in the Netherlands at Leiden (1615), some youthful adventures, and a period in Rome (1620–22), he

Damon Albarn: …the Red Hot Chili Peppers’ Flea on bass.

Islamic arts: Belles lettres: …the late 10th century, when Balʿamī made an abridged translation of the vast Arabic historical chronicle by al-Ṭabarī (died 923).

Bam, is a city in eastern Kermān province, Iran. The city, an agricultural centre situated on the Silk Road and long famed for its large fortress, was designated a UNESCO World Heritage site in 2004. Bam is located about 115 miles (185 km) southeast of the city of Kermān at an elevation of

Siberia: The Soviet period and after: The construction of the BAM (Baikal-Amur Magistral) railroad between Ust-Kut, on the Lena River, and Komsomolsk-na-Amure, on the Amur, a distance of 2,000 miles (3,200 km), was completed in 1980.

Merce Cunningham: …mark Cunningham’s 90th birthday, the Brooklyn Academy of Music premiered his new and last work, Nearly Ninety, in April 2009. His career was the subject of the documentary Cunningham (2019).

Iván Zamorano is one of the most recognized Chilean football (soccer) players of all time. He gained fame as a great scorer in Europe. His popularity led the way for later Chilean stars to play in Europe. Playing sports from a young age—Zamorano’s father signed him up for the local soccer team when

high place, Israelite or Canaanite open-air shrine usually erected on an elevated site. Prior to the conquest of Canaan (Palestine) by the Israelites in the 12th–11th century bc, the high places served as shrines of the Canaanite fertility deities, the Baals (Lords) and the Asherot (Semitic

high place, Israelite or Canaanite open-air shrine usually erected on an elevated site. Prior to the conquest of Canaan (Palestine) by the Israelites in the 12th–11th century bc, the high places served as shrines of the Canaanite fertility deities, the Baals (Lords) and the Asherot (Semitic

Bamako, capital of Mali, located on the Niger River in the southwestern part of the country. When occupied for the French in 1880 by Captain Joseph-Simon Gallieni, Bamako was a settlement of a few hundred inhabitants, grouped in villages. It became the capital of the former colony of French Sudan

Mali: Education: …the government—is offered by the University of Bamako (1993) and state colleges, which include teacher-training colleges, a college of administration, an engineering institute, an agricultural and veterinary science institute, and a medical school. Many of Mali’s university students study abroad, especially in France and Senegal. Other school reform has focused…

Bambara, ethnolinguistic group of the upper Niger region of Mali whose language, Bambara (Bamana), belongs to the Mande branch of the Niger-Congo language family. The Bambara are to a great extent intermingled with other tribes, and there is no centralized organization. Each small district, made up

Mande languages: …more than a million speakers: Bambara (which has four million), Malinke, Maninka, Mende, Dyula (which is used as a trade language by four million people in northern Côte d’Ivoire and western Burkina Faso), Soninke, and Susu. The smaller eastern group consists of 13 languages, only one of which, Dan, has…

Botswana: Growth of Tswana states: …of those Kwena thenceforth called Ngwato settled farther north at Shoshong. By about 1795 a group of Ngwato, called the Tawana, had even founded a state as far northwest as Lake Ngami.

Native American dance: Mexico and Mesoamerica: Contests of improvisations to la bamba, widely danced in the Mexican Gulf Coast area, also contribute to the merriment of the Veracruz huapango.

Islamic arts: General considerations: …member of Senegal’s literary community, Amadou Bamba M’backe, who founded the politically important group of the Murīdiyyah, wrote (quite apart from practical words of wisdom in his mother tongue) some 20,000 mystically tinged verses in Classical Arabic.

Mount Bamba, mountain (2,625 feet [800 metres]) in the Mayombé Massif, in the southwestern part of the Republic of the

Afrika Bambaataa is an American disc jockey (deejay or DJ) and music producer who is credited as being a leading disseminator of hip-hop music and culture. A pioneer of breakbeat deejaying, a style marked by the quick repetition of fast-paced, syncopated drum samples, Bambaataa is often referred to

Bambara, ethnolinguistic group of the upper Niger region of Mali whose language, Bambara (Bamana), belongs to the Mande branch of the Niger-Congo language family. The Bambara are to a great extent intermingled with other tribes, and there is no centralized organization. Each small district, made up

Fabales: Ecological and economic importance: …family is Vigna subterranea (Bambara groundnut), a leguminous plant that develops underground fruits in the arid lands of Africa. Important too are the seeds of Bauhinia esculenta; they are gathered for the high-protein tubers and seeds. Vigna aconitifolia (moth bean) and V. umbellata (rice bean) are much used in…

Mande languages: …more than a million speakers: Bambara (which has four million), Malinke, Maninka, Mende, Dyula (which is used as a trade language by four million people in northern Côte d’Ivoire and western Burkina Faso), Soninke, and Susu. The smaller eastern group consists of 13 languages, only one of which, Dan, has…

Bambara states, two separate West African states, one of which was based on the town of Ségou, between the Sénégal and Niger rivers, and the other on Kaarta, along the middle Niger (both in present-day Mali). According to tradition, the Segu kingdom was founded by two brothers, Barama Ngolo and Nia

Toni Cade Bambara was an American writer, civil-rights activist, and teacher who wrote about the concerns of the African-American community. Reared by her mother in Harlem, Bedford-Stuyvesant, and Queens, N.Y., Bambara (a surname she adopted in 1970) was educated at Queens College (B.A., 1959). In

Melanesian languages: …Mission in the Solomon Islands; Bambatana, a literary language used by the Methodists on Choiseul Island; Bugotu, a lingua franca on Santa Isabel (Ysabel Island); Tolai, a widely used missionary language in New Britain and New Ireland; Yabêm and Graged, lingua francas of the Lutheran Mission in the Madang region…

South Africa: Black, Coloured, and Indian political responses: …an armed rising led by Bambatha, a Zulu chief. At the end of this “reluctant rebellion,” between 3,000 and 4,000 Blacks had been killed and many thousands imprisoned.

Bamberg, county, south-central South Carolina, U.S. Bordered to the northeast by the South Fork Edisto River and to the southwest by the Salkehatchie River, it is also drained by the Little Salkehatchie River. The county is largely agricultural, with wetlands in the Coastal Plain. The Cathedral Bay

Bamberg, city, Bavaria Land (state), south-central Germany. It lies along the canalized Regnitz River, 2 miles (3 km) above the latter’s confluence with the Main River, north of Nürnberg. First mentioned in 902 as the seat of the ancestral castle of the Babenberg family, Bamberg became the seat of

Bamberg: Bamberg’s imperial cathedral (1004–1237) contains many notable statues, the tombs of Henry II, his wife, Cunegund, and Pope Clement II, and a wooden altar carved by Veit Stoss. There are two bishops’ palaces: the Alte Residenz, or old palace (1571–76), which houses a local history museum, and…

Ludwig Bamberger was an economist and publicist, a leading authority on currency problems in Germany. Originally a radical, he became a moderate liberal in Bismarck’s Germany. Born of Jewish parents, Bamberger was studying French law when the Revolutions of 1848 inspired his radicalism. He became a

Bambi, novel by Felix Salten, published in 1923 as Bambi: Eine Lebensgeschichte aus dem Walde. The story is an enduring children’s classic as well as an allegory for adults. It is a realistic, although anthropomorphized, account of a deer from his birth to his final role as a wise and tough old

Bambi, American animated film, released in 1942, that is considered a classic in the Disney canon for its lush hand-drawn animation and its sensitive affective narrative. The story chronicles the adventures of Bambi, a fawn whose father is revered as the Great Prince of the Forest. From birth Bambi

Bambi, novel by Felix Salten, published in 1923 as Bambi: Eine Lebensgeschichte aus dem Walde. The story is an enduring children’s classic as well as an allegory for adults. It is a realistic, although anthropomorphized, account of a deer from his birth to his final role as a wise and tough old

Bambi, novel by Felix Salten, published in 1923 as Bambi: Eine Lebensgeschichte aus dem Walde. The story is an enduring children’s classic as well as an allegory for adults. It is a realistic, although anthropomorphized, account of a deer from his birth to his final role as a wise and tough old

Elfriede Jelinek: , 1997); and Bambiland (2003).

Héctor Espino was a professional baseball player with the Mexican League (an affiliate with U.S. Minor League Baseball). Although virtually unknown in the United States, Espino is considered by many in Mexico to be the greatest native-born hitter of all time and is a national hero in that country.

Boston Red Sox: …and of the supposed “Curse of the Bambino” (“Bambino” was one of Ruth’s nicknames), cited by many Red Sox fans as the reason the team failed to win another World Series in the 20th century while the Yankees went on to become baseball’s most successful franchise. After losing Ruth…

Rome: The Capitoline: …is the home of “Il Bambino,” a wooden statue (originally a 15th-century statue; now a copy) of the Christ Child, who is called upon to save desperately ill children.

Babe Ruth was chosen as one of the first five members of the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1936, a year after he finished his career. He transformed baseball through his home-run hitting, which produced an offensive revolution in the sport. His accomplishments, together with his personal charisma and

Bamboccianti, group of painters working in Rome in the mid-17th century who were known for their relatively small, often anecdotal paintings of everyday life. The word derives from the nickname “Il Bamboccio” (“Large Baby”), applied to the physically malformed Dutch painter Pieter van Laer

Bamboccianti: …the physically malformed Dutch painter Pieter van Laer (1592/95–1642). Generally regarded as the originator of the style and its most important exponent, van Laer arrived in Rome from Haarlem about 1625 and was soon well known for paintings in which his Netherlandish interest in the picturesque was combined with the…

bamboo, (subfamily Bambusoideae), subfamily of tall treelike grasses of the family Poaceae, comprising more than 115 genera and 1,400 species. Bamboos are distributed in tropical and subtropical to mild temperate regions, with the heaviest concentration and largest number of species in East and

Bamboo Annals, set of Chinese court records written on bamboo slips, from the state of Wei, one of the many small states into which China was divided during the Dong (Eastern) Zhou dynasty (770–256 bce). The state records were hidden in a tomb uncovered some 6 miles (10 km) southwest of the

bat: Locomotion: …as the bamboo bats (Tylonycteris), have specialized wrist and sole pads for moving along and roosting on the smooth surface of leaves or bamboo stalks. Bats are not known to swim in nature except, perhaps, by accident. When they do fall into water, however, they generally swim competently.

Anthony Mann: The 1940s: film noirs: The Bamboo Blonde (1946) was a hybrid of a musical and a war movie about a bomber pilot who falls in love with a nightclub singer.

houseplant: Trees: The parlour palms and bamboo palms of the genus Chamaedorea have dainty fronds on slender stalks; they keep well even in fairly dark places. Similar in appearance is the areca palm (Chrysalidocarpus) with slender yellowish stems carrying feathery fronds in clusters. The pygmy date (Phoenix roebelenii), a compact palm…

bamboo rat, any of four Asiatic species of burrowing, slow-moving, nocturnal rodents. Bamboo rats have a robust, cylindrical body, small ears and eyes, and short, stout legs. The three species of Rhizomys are 23 to 50 cm (9.1 to 19.7 inches) long with a short and bald or sparsely haired tail (5 to

annelid: Annotated classification: Maldane, Axiothella. Order Flabelligerida Sedentary; setae of anterior segments directed forward to form a cephalic (head) cage; prostomium and peristome retractile, with 2 palpi and retractile branchiae; size, 1 to 10 cm; examples of genera: Flabelligera, Stylariodes.

Savion Glover: …in director Spike Lee’s film Bamboozled, and in 2001 he made an appearance in Bojangles, a television biopic of tap dancer Bill (“Bojangles”) Robinson starring Hines. He premiered “Classical Savion,” a production that featured him tapping to classical music, in New York City in 2005; the show later toured the…

Latin American dance: Central America, Colombia, and Venezuela: zamacueca—are called the bambuco and joropo. The bambuco combines features of the fandango, Andean, and Afro-Latin dances as partners use a handkerchief to flirt and to embellish the courtship theme of the dance. The joropo is distinctive beyond the separation of the couple, with the man dancing the…

Luba: A powerful religious lodge, the bambudye, acted as an effective check on the behaviour of the king and even had the power to execute him in case of excessive abuse of power. It was assumed that the king had to obey the mandate of heaven by governing according to the…

Bamburgh, coastal village, unitary authority and historic county of Northumberland, northeastern England. The site is dominated by Bamburgh Castle, which stands on a cliff 150 feet (45 metres) above the North Sea. The fortress was founded in the 6th century by Ida, first monarch of the Anglo-Saxon

Bamburgh Castle, castle in Bamburgh, England, on a site that has been occupied since ancient times. The oldest surviving aboveground parts of the castle date from the 12th century. Standing above the Northumbrian coast, with commanding views of Lindisfarne and the Farne Islands, this castle was in

bamboo: especially Dendrocalamus strictus and Bambusa bambos, are used to make fine-quality paper. The jointed stems of bamboo have perhaps the most numerous uses; the largest stems supply planks for houses and rafts, while both large and small stems are lashed together to form the scaffoldings used on building-construction sites.…

bamboo: especially Dendrocalamus strictus and Bambusa bambos, are used to make fine-quality paper. The jointed stems of bamboo have perhaps the most numerous uses; the largest stems supply planks for houses and rafts, while both large and small stems are lashed together to form the scaffoldings used on building-construction sites.…

bamboo, (subfamily Bambusoideae), subfamily of tall treelike grasses of the family Poaceae, comprising more than 115 genera and 1,400 species. Bamboos are distributed in tropical and subtropical to mild temperate regions, with the heaviest concentration and largest number of species in East and

Bambuti, a group of Pygmies of the Ituri Forest of eastern Congo (Kinshasa). They are the shortest group of Pygmies in Africa, averaging under 4 feet 6 inches (137 cm) in height, and are perhaps the most famous. In addition to their stature, they also differ in blood type from their Bantu- and

Hierapolis, ancient Syrian city, now partly occupied by Manbij (Membij), about 50 miles (80 km) northeast of Aleppo. The place first appears in Greek as Bambyce, but its Syrian name was probably Mabbog. The Seleucids made it the chief station on their main road between Antioch and

Bamenda, town located in northwestern Cameroon. It is situated in the volcanic Bamenda Highlands. Although communications are difficult because of heavy precipitation and rugged relief, the town serves as a trade and export centre for local agricultural products such as hides, coffee, and tobacco.

Samuel Bamford was an English radical reformer who was the author of several widely popular poems (principally in the Lancashire dialect) showing sympathy with the condition of the working class. He became a working weaver and earned great respect in northern radical circles as a reformer. Bamford

Kingdom of Rwanda: …communities were subdued by the mwami (“king”) Ruganzu II Ndori in the 17th century. The borders of the kingdom were rounded out in the late 19th century by Kigeri IV Rwabugiri, who is regarded as Rwanda’s greatest king. By 1900 Rwanda was a unified state with a centralized military structure.

Bamiyan, town located in central Afghanistan. It lies about 80 miles (130 km) northwest of Kabul, the country’s capital, in the Bamiyan valley, at an elevation of 8,495 feet (2,590 meters). Bamiyan is first mentioned in 5th-century-ce Chinese sources and was visited by the Chinese Buddhist monks

Bamileke, any of about 90 West African peoples in the Bamileke region of Cameroon. They speak a language of the Benue-Congo branch of the Niger-Congo family. They do not refer to themselves as Bamileke but instead use the names of the individual kingdoms to which they belong or else refer to

Bamiyan, town located in central Afghanistan. It lies about 80 miles (130 km) northwest of Kabul, the country’s capital, in the Bamiyan valley, at an elevation of 8,495 feet (2,590 meters). Bamiyan is first mentioned in 5th-century-ce Chinese sources and was visited by the Chinese Buddhist monks

South Asian arts: 14th–19th century: Bammera Pōtana, a great Śaiva devotee in life and poetry, unschooled yet a scholar, is widely known for his Bhāgavatam, a masterpiece that is said to excel the original Sanskrit Bhāgavata-Purāṇa. Tāḷḷapāka Annāmācārya, son of a great family of scholars, fathered an exciting new genre…

high place, Israelite or Canaanite open-air shrine usually erected on an elevated site. Prior to the conquest of Canaan (Palestine) by the Israelites in the 12th–11th century bc, the high places served as shrines of the Canaanite fertility deities, the Baals (Lords) and the Asherot (Semitic

Bamum, a West African people speaking a language that is often used as a lingua franca and belongs to the Benue-Congo branch of the Niger-Congo family. Their kingdom, with its capital at Foumban (q.v.) in the high western grasslands of Cameroon, is ruled over by a king (mfon) whose position is

Bamum: …West African people speaking a language that is often used as a lingua franca and belongs to the Benue-Congo branch of the Niger-Congo family. Their kingdom, with its capital at Foumban (q.v.) in the high western grasslands of Cameroon, is ruled over by a king (mfon) whose position is hereditary…

John Bampton: …Christendom’s most distinguished lectureships, the Bampton lectures at Oxford University.

John Bampton was an English clergyman who gave his name to one of Protestant Christendom’s most distinguished lectureships, the Bampton lectures at Oxford University. Bampton studied at Trinity College, Oxford, and was a prebendary of Salisbury Cathedral from 1718 until his death. The Bampton

Bamum, a West African people speaking a language that is often used as a lingua franca and belongs to the Benue-Congo branch of the Niger-Congo family. Their kingdom, with its capital at Foumban (q.v.) in the high western grasslands of Cameroon, is ruled over by a king (mfon) whose position is

Bamum: …West African people speaking a language that is often used as a lingua franca and belongs to the Benue-Congo branch of the Niger-Congo family. Their kingdom, with its capital at Foumban (q.v.) in the high western grasslands of Cameroon, is ruled over by a king (mfon) whose position is hereditary…

Bamiyan, town located in central Afghanistan. It lies about 80 miles (130 km) northwest of Kabul, the country’s capital, in the Bamiyan valley, at an elevation of 8,495 feet (2,590 meters). Bamiyan is first mentioned in 5th-century-ce Chinese sources and was visited by the Chinese Buddhist monks

luogu: …thin plate), ling (handbells), and ban (woodblock) are sometimes added. Whatever the ensemble’s composition, the drummer is usually the leader.

ban, former Hungarian title denoting a governor of a military district (banat) and later designating a local representative of the Hungarian king in outlying possessions—e.g., Bosnia and Croatia. The etymology of the word ban has been contested. Some linguists argue that it was originally a Persian

ban, former Hungarian title denoting a governor of a military district (banat) and later designating a local representative of the Hungarian king in outlying possessions—e.g., Bosnia and Croatia. The etymology of the word ban has been contested. Some linguists argue that it was originally a Persian

The Protestant Heritage: Church discipline: …the established churches, and “the ban,” a form of excommunication, was used to enforce discipline by expelling members from the congregation of believers and the broader community. The ban was not merely punitive; brotherly admonition and discipline were to continue, with the hope that the wayward could be rescued.

Ban Biao was an eminent Chinese official of the Han dynasty (206 bce–220 ce) who is reported to have begun the famous Han shu (“Book of Han”), considered the Confucian historiographic model on which all later dynastic histories were patterned. Ban Biao intended the work to supplement the Shiji

Ban Chao was a Chinese general and colonial administrator of the Han dynasty (206 bce–220 ce) who reestablished Chinese control over Central Asia. The brother of the historian Ban Gu (32?–92), Ban Chao early tired of literary pursuits and turned to military affairs. In 73 he was dispatched with a

Japanese art: Calligraphy and painting: The Ban Dainagon ekotoba (“Story of the Courtier Ban Dainagon”) narrates the incidents surrounding the arson of a gate at the imperial palace in the mid-9th century. This work of the later 12th century is a masterful blend of technical styles. Movements of tension, suspense, thunderous…

Surat Thani, city, southern Thailand, on the Malay Peninsula. Locally the city is called Ban Don. It is a port at the head of the Ta Pi River delta near the Gulf of Thailand and a station on the Bangkok-Singapore railway. The surrounding area is important for its production of tin, fish, rice, and

Ban Gu was a Chinese scholar-official of the Dong (Eastern), or Hou (Later), Han dynasty and one of China’s most noteworthy historians. His Han shu (translated as The History of the Former Han Dynasty) became the model most frequently used by later Chinese historians. Ban Gu was the son of Ban Biao

Ban Ki-Moon is a South Korean diplomat and politician, who served as the eighth secretary-general (2007–16) of the United Nations (UN). At age 18 Ban won a competition that took him to the White House to meet U.S. Pres. John F. Kennedy, a visit that Ban claimed inspired his public career. He

Buon Me Thuot, largest city in the central highlands of southern Vietnam. It lies at an elevation of 1,759 feet (536 metres) at the southern end of the Dac Lac Plateau, 55 miles (89 km) north-northwest of Da Lat. It has teacher-training and vocational schools, hospitals, and a commercial airport.

Richard Wagner: Early life: …second opera, Das Liebesverbot (The Ban on Love), after Shakespeare’s Measure for Measure, was a disaster.

Zhang Ailing: It was later republished as Half a Lifelong Romance (1966) and served as the basis for a film (1997) and a television series (2003).

banshee, (“woman of the fairies”) supernatural being in Irish and other Celtic folklore whose mournful “keening,” or wailing screaming or lamentation, at night was believed to foretell the death of a member of the family of the person who heard the spirit. In Ireland banshees were believed to warn

Ban Zhao was a renowned Chinese scholar and historian of the Dong (Eastern) Han dynasty. The daughter of a prominent family, Ban Zhao married at age 14, but her husband died while she was still young. She never remarried, devoting herself instead to literature and the education of her son. Her

Shigeru Ban is a Japanese architect who employs elements of both Japanese and American design in his projects and who is known for his pioneering use of cardboard tubes in building construction. In 2014 he was awarded the Pritzker Prize. In its citation the Pritzker jury noted his creatively

Bana was one of the greatest masters of Sanskrit prose, famed principally for his chronicle, Harshacharita (c. 640; “The Life of Harsha”), depicting the court and times of the Buddhist emperor Harsha (reigned c. 606–647) of northern India. Bana gives some autobiographical account of himself in the

Banaba, coral and phosphate formation, part of Kiribati, in the west-central Pacific Ocean. It is located 250 miles (400 km) west of the nearest Gilbert Islands and has a circumference of about 6 miles (10 km). Banaba is the location of the highest point in Kiribati, reaching 285 feet (87 metres)

Martyrs of Uganda: Luke Banabakintu were martyred with them.

Bana was one of the greatest masters of Sanskrit prose, famed principally for his chronicle, Harshacharita (c. 640; “The Life of Harsha”), depicting the court and times of the Buddhist emperor Harsha (reigned c. 606–647) of northern India. Bana gives some autobiographical account of himself in the

analysis: Functional analysis: …a Hilbert space and a Banach space, named after the German mathematician David Hilbert and the Polish mathematician Stefan Banach, respectively. Together they laid the foundations for what is now called functional analysis.

Stefan Banach was a Polish mathematician who founded modern functional analysis and helped develop the theory of topological vector spaces. Banach was given the surname of his mother, who was identified as Katarzyna Banach on his birth certificate, and the first name of his father, Stefan Greczek.

axiom of choice: …best-known of these is the Banach-Tarski paradox. This shows that for a solid sphere there exists (in the sense that the axioms assert the existence of sets) a decomposition into a finite number of pieces that can be reassembled to produce a sphere with twice the radius of the original…

Celtic religion: The impact of Christianity: …sovereignty: the sexual union, or banais ríghi (“wedding of kingship”), that constituted the core of the royal inauguration seems to have been purged from the ritual at an early date through ecclesiastical influence, but it remains at least implicit, and often quite explicit, for many centuries in the literary tradition.