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Puri

(Encyclopedia)Puri po͞oˈrē [key], town (1991 pop. 125,199), Odisha (Orissa) state, E central India, on the Bay of Bengal. The life of the town centers around the cult of Juggernaut (Jagannath), a form of the Kri...

Ellora

(Encyclopedia)Ellora ĕlōˈrə [key], village, E central Maharashtra state, India. Extending more than 1 mi (1.6 km) on a hill are 34 rock and cave temples (5th–13th cent.), most of them Hindu but some Buddhist ...

Aśoka

(Encyclopedia)Aśoka əshōˈkə, –sōˈk– [key] or Ashoka, d. c.232 b.c., Indian emperor (c.273–c.232 b.c.) of the Maurya dynasty; grandson of Chandragupta. One of the greatest rulers of ancient India, he br...

Chatterjee, Bankim Chandra

(Encyclopedia)Chatterjee, Bankim Chandra bəngˈkĭm chŭnˈdrə chäˈtərjē [key], 1838–94, Indian nationalist writer, b. Bengal. He popularized a Bengali prose style that became the vehicle of the major natio...

Ghats

(Encyclopedia)Ghats gŏts [key] [Hindi,=steps], two mountain ranges of S India, paralleling the coasts of the Arabian Sea and the Bay of Bengal and forming two sides of the Deccan plateau. Anai Mudi (8,841 ft/2,695...

Telangana

(Encyclopedia)Telangana, state (2011 pop. 35,286,757), 44,340 sq mi (114,840 sq km), S central India. Created in 2014 from NW Andhra Pradesh, it is bordered by Maharashtra (N), Chhattisgarh and Odisha (NE), Andhra ...

Andhra Pradesh

(Encyclopedia)Andhra Pradesh änˈdrə präˈdāsh [key], state, 61,855 sq mi (160,205 sq km), SE India, on the Bay of Bengal. The state was created in 1956 from the Telugu-speaking por...

snake worship

(Encyclopedia)snake worship. The snake has been variously adored as a regenerative power, as a god of evil, as a god of good, as Christ (by the Gnostics), as a phallic deity, as a solar deity, and as a god of death...

Maharashtra

(Encyclopedia)Maharashtra məhäˈrəshtrə [key], state (2001 provisional pop. 96,752,247), 118,530 sq mi (306,993 sq km), W India, on the Arabian Sea. The city of Mumbai (formerly Bombay) is the capital. The stat...

Nehru, Jawaharlal

(Encyclopedia)Nehru, Jawaharlal jəwähərlälˈ nāˈro͞o, nĕˈ– [key], 1889–1964, Indian statesman, b. Allahabad (now Priyagraj); son of Motilal Nehru. A politician and statesman of great skill, Nehru was e...

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