RANJITSINHJI 



6489 



RANPUR 



1809, bound him by treaty to con- 

 fine his authority to the N. of the 

 Sutlej. Reorganizing his army with 

 European officers, during the next 

 15 years Ranjit Singh extended his 

 realm to include almost all the 

 Punjab. He died June 27, 1839. 

 See Life, Sir L. H. Griffin, 1892. 



Ranjitsinhji, KUMAR SHRI (b. 

 1872). Indian prince and cricketer. 

 Born at Sarodar, India, Sept. 10, 

 1872, he was 

 c d u c a ted in 

 India and at 

 Trinity Col- 

 lege, Cam- 

 bridge. In 

 England his 

 \v o n d e r f u 1 

 powers as a 

 cricketer soon 

 K. S. Ranjitsinhji, attracted 

 Indian prince attention, and 

 in 1895 he became a member of 

 the Sussex county team. In 1896 

 and 1900 be was at the head of 

 the English batting averages, and 

 he played for Cambridge University 

 and later for England against 

 Australia. In 1906 he succeeded 

 his cousin as maharaja of Nawan- 

 agar. He provided troops for the 

 Empire in the Great War, himself 

 serving at the front, 1914-15, and 

 represented the ruling princes of 

 India at the assembly of the League 

 of Nations, Geneva, in Dec., 1920. 

 Ranjitsinhji ranks as one of the 

 greatest batsmen who ever lived. 

 He wrote The Jubilee Book of 

 Cricket, 1897. 



Rank. Term designating the 

 grade or dignity of a number of 

 persons forming a certain class in 

 organized societies. Ranks may be 

 loosely differentiated without par- 

 ticular reference to function, as 

 seen in the commonjy accepted 

 social distinctions, or formed with 

 strict definition of status and 

 authority, as in the ranks of 

 ecclesiastical or military organi- 

 zations. Equivalent ranks are 

 recognized; thus, in the British 

 naval, army, and air services, the 

 rank of admiral of the fleet is 

 equivalent to that of field- marshal 

 or marshal of the air; captain, 

 R.N., to colonel or group captain; 

 chief gunner, etc., to second lieu- 

 tenant or pilot officer. See Caste ; 

 Nobility ; Peerage ; Precedence. 



Rank and File. Popular term 

 for the British private soldier. The 

 term, rank and file movement, is 

 occasionally applied to the levelling 

 influences which early in the 20th 

 century tended to undermine the 

 authority of the recognized leaders 

 of the trade unions (q.v. ). See File. 

 Ranke, LEOPOLD VON (1795- 

 1886).' " ^German historian. Born 

 Dec. 21', 1795, at Wiehe, in Thur- 

 ingia, lie was the son of a lawyer. 



He was educated at schools in 

 Saxony, and at the university of 

 Leipzig, became a good classical 

 scholar, and after leaving the 

 university was for a time a teacher 



Leopold von Ranke, German historian 



After J. Schroder 



at Frankfort- on-Oder. There he 

 wrote, in 1824, his first book, and 

 on the strength of it was made 

 professor extraordinary at Berlin. 



After three busy years passed 

 among the manuscripts in Berlin, 

 Ranke went abroad to continue his 

 studies. He was first in Vienna, 

 and then for three years in Venice, 

 Rome, and elsewhere in Italy, 

 working hard on the historical 

 documents there. He returned to 

 Berlin, fully equipped for his life- 

 work. In 1837 he became full pro- 

 fessor at Berlin, and there he lec- 

 tured and taught almost until his 

 death. He was made historiographer 

 of Prussia, and died May 23, 1886. 



Ranke's works, as collected in 

 1881, fill 51 vol- 

 u m e s. The 

 greatest are prob- 

 ably his History 

 of the Popes, and 

 his History of 

 Germany during 

 the Reformation. 

 His History of 

 England deals 

 chiefly with the 

 17th century, and 

 is especially valu- 

 able for the rela- 

 t i o n s between 

 England and 

 other European 

 powers; like the 



80 years of age, be began by the 

 aid of secretaries to write the 

 History of the World. He carried 

 the story down to the Crusades. 



Ranke was beyond comparison 

 the greatest historian of his age, 

 and one of the greatest of all time, 

 for, save perhaps one, he had every 

 quality that the perfect historian 

 needs. His historical knowledge 

 was enormous ; no one ever moved 

 with such ease over great tracts of 

 human experience. Never a par- 

 tisan, he sought only to reach the 

 truth ; he has indeed been accused 

 of being too passionless. To this 

 high quality his one defect is due ; 

 his style does not glow with elo- 

 quence, but is burdened with the 

 direct commonplace of facts. It 

 is, however, orderly, and not in- 

 frequently a pregnant aphorism is 

 met. He taught his pupils to find 

 the material of their work in nothing 

 less than the original authorities 

 themselves, to examine them critic- 

 ally, to consider the circumstances 

 in which they were written, and the 

 characters of their writers. See 

 History ; consult also History and 

 the Historians of the 19th Century, 

 G. P. Gooch, 1913. 



Rankin, JEANETTE (b. 1880). 

 American congresswoman. Born 

 June 11, 1880, she associated her- 

 self with the feminist movement 

 in the Western U.S.A., 1910-14, 

 visiting New Zealand in 1915 to 

 investigate social conditions. In 

 1917 she was the first woman to be 

 elected to Congress. 



Rannoch. Loch or lake of N.W. 

 Perthshire, Scotland. It lies to the 

 E. of the bleak moorland dist. of 

 Rannoch. Surrounded by moun- 

 tains, and a true rock basin, Loch 

 Rannoch has a length of 9 m. and 

 a breadth of 1 m. It contains two 

 islands, receives the Ericht, and is 

 drained by the Tummel into theTay. 



Rannoch, Scotland. The highland loch, from Creaganour 



History of the Popes, it has been 

 translated into English. His History 

 of France deals with approximately 

 the same period. A work on the 

 History of Prussia is also worthy 

 of mention. When blind, and over 



Ranpur. Native state of Bihar 

 and Orissa, India. It is the most 

 southerly of the Orissa Feudatory 

 States, on the borders of the Cut- 

 tack division. Its area is 203 sq. 

 m. Pop. 46,000. 



