Ranka (legend)

Lan Ke (爛柯, Làn Kē, or The Rotten Axe Handle in English), is a Chinese legend which has been compared to that of Rip Van Winkle, although it predates it by at least a 1000 years. The exact date of origin of the legend is unknown, but it has literary antecedents from the 5th century AD, and the "rotten axe handle" plot element was certainly present by an early 6th century version.

Another plot element of the legend features two immortals playing a board game, interpreted in later times as Go, so that Lan Ke has become a literary name for Go. It is through this connection that the name "Ranka", which is the Japanese pronunciation of "Lan Ke", entered the English language.

Literary evolution

The early 4th century compilation of legends and occult tales Yiyuan (異苑) by official Liu Jingshu (劉敬叔) recorded a tale about a traveller riding a horse, who saw two elderly men by the side of the road playing shupu (樗蒲), a race game, and got off his horse to watch. In the middle of the game he glanced at his horse and was astonished to see that it had turned to a skeleton. When he returned home, he found that all of his family were gone. The 4th century Dongyang Ji (東陽記) by Zheng Qizhi recorded a slightly different version: a man named Wang Zhi went to Mount Shishi, in Zhejiang, to chop wood, and stopped when he heard four youths singing. The youths gave him food that looked like date cores. He ate them, and was not hungry. By the time the youths finished singing, and he started on his way home, he noticed that his axe handle had rotted. When he returned home, he realised that decades had past. The Dongyang Ji version was quoted by Li Daoyuan's influential 6th century work Commentary on the Water Classic, which made the story famous. Still later, 6th century author Ren Fang's Tales of the Strange (述異記) reworked the story once again, so that the youths were playing a board game and singing, although he did not specifically mention Go.

Ranka

The Ranka are an ethnic group belonging to the Marwari community of Rajasthan.

The history of Ranka is related with two key persons. Kaku and Pata were two Goud rajputs, residing in city Vallabhi (Saurashtra). When Vallabhi was destroyed, they settled in Marwar. In their 5th generation were Ranka and Banka. Both the brothers were farmers in a village near Pali.

When Acharya Shri Jinvallabh Suri arrived in the village they also went to listen the sermon with the villagers. They were impressed and became Jain. As per the instructions of the Acharya they left the farming and started business. They both earned wealth and fame.

Acharya Shri Jindutt Suri made them Oswals in VS 1185 and their gotras were named Ranka and Banka.

SETH, SETHIA:- Once the king of Sidhpur, Pattan needed a loan. These two brothers gave a loan of 65 lacks in golden coins, so the king honoured them with the titles 'SETH' and 'SETHIA' and gave them the right to wear gold crowns. Hence they were named Ranka-Seth and Banka-Sethia.

Chasselas

Chasselas or Chasselas blanc is a wine grape variety grown in Switzerland, France, Germany, Portugal, Hungary, Romania and New Zealand. Chasselas is mostly vinified to be a full, dry and fruity white wine. It is also suitable as a table grape, grown widely for this purpose in Turkey.

History

Theories of its origin vary. Pierre Galet believes it is a native Swiss variety.

In 1940, Chasselas was crossed with Silvaner to produce the white grape variety Nobling.

Wine regions

Widely grown in the cantons of Switzerland where it has several regional synonym names, the main one being Fendant in the Valais canton. It is considered an ideal pairing for raclette or fondue. Chasselas is also known as Perlan in the Mandement district of Geneva. In 2009, it was Switzerland's second most grown grape variety at 4,013 hectares (9,920 acres).

In Germany with 1,123 hectares (2,770 acres), it is almost exclusively grown in the wine region of Baden under the name Gutedel.

In France it is mostly grown in the Loire region where it is converted into a blend with Sauvignon blanc called "Pouilly-sur-Loire". California and Australian growers know this variety under the alias names of Chasselas Dore or Golden Chasselas.

Legend

A legend (Latin, legenda, "things to be read") is a narrative of human actions that are perceived both by teller and listeners to take place within human history and to possess certain qualities that give the tale verisimilitude. Legend, for its active and passive participants includes no happenings that are outside the realm of "possibility" but which may include miracles. Legends may be transformed over time, in order to keep it fresh and vital, and realistic. Many legends operate within the realm of uncertainty, never being entirely believed by the participants, but also never being resolutely doubted.

The Brothers Grimm defined legend as folktale historically grounded. A modern folklorist's professional definition of legend was proposed by Timothy R. Tangherlini in 1990:

Etymology and origin

Legend is a loanword from Old French that entered English usage circa 1340. The Old French noun legende derives from the Medieval Latin legenda. In its early English-language usage, the word indicated a narrative of an event.

Chart

A chart, also called a graph, is a graphical representation of data, in which "the data is represented by symbols, such as bars in a bar chart, lines in a line chart, or slices in a pie chart". A chart can represent tabular numeric data, functions or some kinds of qualitative structure and provides different info.

The term "chart" as a graphical representation of data has multiple meanings:

Charts are often used to ease understanding of large quantities of data and the relationships between parts of the data. Charts can usually be read more quickly than the raw data that they are produced from. They are used in a wide variety of fields, and can be created by hand (often on graph paper) or by computer using a charting application. Certain types of charts are more useful for presenting a given data set than others. For example, data that presents percentages in different groups (such as "satisfied, not satisfied, unsure") are often displayed in a pie chart, but may be more easily understood when presented in a horizontal bar chart. On the other hand, data that represents numbers that change over a period of time (such as "annual revenue from 1990 to 2000") might be best shown as a line chart.

Legend (game publisher)

Legend was a video game publishing house also known as Microl/Legend, and earlier as simply Microl. Legend's chairman and founder was John Peel.

Partial list of published games