Bandama \ban-'da-ma\ River River, central Cote d’Ivoire. The long¬ est and commercially most important river in Cote d’Ivoire, it and its
George Bancroft, photograph by Mathew Brady
COURTESY OF THE LIBRARY OF CONGRESS, WASHINGTON, D.C.
tributaries drain half the country’s surface area. It rises in the highlands and flows southward 497 mi (800 km) to enter the Gulf of Guinea and the Taga Lagoon. A major hydroelectric plant is sited at Kossou.
Bandar Seri Begawan Vban-dar-'ser-e-be-'ga-wan \ formerly Bru¬ nei Town City (pop., 2001: city, 27,285; 2002 est.: metro, area, 74,700), capital of Brunei. Lying along the Brunei River near its mouth on Brunei Bay, it is a trade centre and river port. Heavily damaged during World War II, it was largely rebuilt; newer buildings include the largest mosque in eastern Asia.
Bandaranaike N.bon-do-ro-'nl-koX, S(olomon) W(est) Ridge¬ way) D(ias) (b. Jan. 9, 1899,
Colombo, Ceylon—d. Sept. 26,
1959, Colombo) Statesman and prime minister (1956-59) of Ceylon (Sri Lanka). Educated at the Univer¬ sity of Oxford, he became a promi¬ nent member of Ceylon’s Western- oriented United National Party. In 1952 he founded the nationalist Sri Lanka Freedom Party, becoming the opposition leader in the legislature.
He later formed an alliance of four nationalist-socialist parties that swept elections in 1956 and made him prime minister. Under Ban¬ daranaike, Sinhalese replaced English as the country’s official lan¬ guage, Buddhism (the majority reli¬ gion) was given a prominent place in the affairs of state, and Ceylon estab¬ lished diplomatic relations with
communist states. He was assassinated in 1959. His widow, Sirimavo Ratwatte Dias Bandaranaike (1916-2000), became the world’s first woman prime minister in 1960, serving until 1965; she was prime min¬ ister twice more (1970-77 and 1994-2000). During her second term a new constitution was adopted that proclaimed a republic (1972) and changed the country’s name to Sri Lanka. She was appointed to a third term when her daughter, Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga (b. 1945), became president in 1994.
S.W.R.D. Bandaranaike
bandeira \ban-'der-o\ Series of 17th-century Portuguese slave-hunting expeditions into the interior of Brazil. Bandeiras consisted of anywhere from 50 to several thousand men (known as bandeirantes), usually from Sao Paulo, who were organized and controlled by wealthy entrepreneurs. The bandeirantes penetrated unmapped regions and expanded Portuguese claims to the South American interior. Along the way they built roads, established settlements, and laid the basis for ranching and agriculture in the interior while reaping large profits and inflicting untold hardship on local Indian tribes.
Bandelier \,ban-d9-'lir\ National Monument Archaeological area, north-central New Mexico, U.S. Lying along the Rio Grande 20 mi (32 km) northwest of Santa Fe, it was established in 1916. It occupies an area of 51 sq mi (132 sq km) and was named for Adolph Bandelier, a Swiss- American archaeologist. The monument contains many cliff and open- pueblo ruins of pre-Columbian Indians (mostly 13th-century) in Frijoles Canyon. Stone sculptures and man-made caves have also been unearthed.
bandicoot Any of about 22 species of marsupials (family Peramelidae) found in Australia, Tasmania, New Guinea, and nearby islands. Bandi¬ coots are 12-30 in. (30-80 cm) long, including the 4- to 12-in. (10- to 30-cm) sparsely haired tail. They have a stout, coarse-haired body, a tapered muzzle, and hindlimbs longer than their forelimbs. Unlike other marsupials, bandicoots have a placenta. They are terrestrial, soli¬ tary animals that dig pits to search for insect and plant food. Farmers consider them pests. All species have declined, and some are now endangered.
Long-nosed bandicoot (Perameles nasuta).
WARREN GARST-TOM STACK AND ASSOCIATES
© 2006 Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc.
Bandinelli ► Bangladesh I 161
Bandinelli, Baccio (b. Nov. 12, 14937, Florence—d. Feb. 7, 1560, Florence) Italian sculptor and painter active in Florence. Though trained as a goldsmith by his father, he soon became one of the principal sculp¬ tors at the Medici court. He often failed to complete his commissions and was accused of jealousy and incompetence by Benvenuto Cellini and Gior¬ gio Vasari. He is remembered more for accounts of his unattractive char¬ acter than for the quality of his work, although surviving works prove him to have been a more distinguished sculptor than his contemporaries allowed. His most famous sculpture is Hercules and Cacus (1534), in the Piazza della Signoria.
Bandung \'ban-dui]\ City (pop., 1996 est.: 2,429,000), Indonesia. The capital of West Java province, it was founded by the Dutch in 1810 in the interior of Java on a 2,400-ft (730-km) plateau. It is surrounded by beau¬ tiful scenery. It is the centre of cultural life for the Sundanese, who com¬ pose most of West Java’s population and differ in customs and language from their Javanese neighbours. It is a centre for the study and preserva¬ tion of Sundanese culture and an educational centre.
bandwidth Measurement of the capacity of a communications signal. For digital signals, the bandwidth is the data speed or rate, measured in bits per second (bps). For analog signals, it is the difference between the highest and lowest frequency components, measured in hertz (cycles per second). For example, a modem with a bandwidth of 56 kilobits per sec¬ ond (Kbps) can transmit a maximum of about 56,000 bits of digital data in one second. The human voice, which produces analog sound waves, has a typical bandwidth of three kilohertz between the highest and low¬ est frequency sounds it can generate.
Banerjea \'ba-nor-je. Sir Surendranath (b. Nov. 10, 1848, Cal¬ cutta, India—d. Aug. 6, 1925, Barrackpore, near Calcutta) Indian states¬ man, one of the founders of modern India. As a young man, he attempted unsuccessfully to serve in the Indian Civil Service, at the time virtually closed to ethnic Indians. He then became a teacher and founded a college in Calcutta (now Kolkata), which was later named for him. Banerjea attempted to bring Hindus and Muslims together for political action, and for 40 years he put forward a nationalist viewpoint in his newspaper, The Bengalee. Twice elected president of the Indian National Congress, he advocated for an Indian constitution on the Canadian model. He was elected in 1913 to two legislative councils and later was knighted (1921); in 1924 he was defeated by an independence candidate, whereupon he retired to write his autobiography, A Nation in the Making (1925).
Banff National Park Park, southwestern Alberta, Canada. Estab¬ lished as a natural reserve in 1885 and as Canada’s first national park in 1887, it lies on the eastern slopes of the Rocky Mountains and includes mineral springs, ice fields, and glacial lakes, including Lake Louise. It has been greatly expanded to its present area of 2,564 sq mi (6,641 sq km). Banff is famed for its spectacular beauty, and visitors are so numer¬ ous that it is now more a recreation than a conservation area. In 1984 it was designated part of the Canadian Rocky Mountain Parks UNESCO World Heritage site.
Bangalore Vbaq-g3-,lor\ City (pop., 2001: city, 4,301,326; metro, area, 5,701,446), capital of Karnataka state, southern India. It is a cultural meeting place for speakers of the Kannada, Telugu, and Tamil languages. Founded in the 16th century, it became a fief of the Indian ruler Hyder Ali c. 1760 but was later taken by the British. It was the headquarters of the British administration 1831-81, when it was restored to the raja of Mysore (now Karnataka). Today, it is one of India’s largest cities and an indus¬ trial and educational centre.