[Kara], a gold-mining district in East Siberia, 300 m. from Chita, of which the mines are the private property of the Czar, and are worked by convicts, who are often disgracefully treated, many of them merely political offenders.
[Kara Sea] is a portion of the Arctic Sea, on the NE. corner of Russia, between Nova Zembla and the Yalmal; receives the rivers Obi and Yenisei, and is navigable from July to September.
[Karaites], a Jewish sect which originated in the 8th century; adhered to the letter of Scripture and repudiated all tradition; were strict Sabbatarians.
[Karakorum], a range of the Himalayas, extending from the Hindu-Kush eastward into Thibet, and a pass in the centre of it 18,000 ft. high. Also the name of the old capital of Mongolia.
[Karamsin], a Russian historian; his first work was "Letters of a Russian Traveller," in 6 vols., published in 1797-1801, which gained him a high reputation, and it was followed by his "History of Russia," in 12 vols., published in 1816-1829, for the materials of which he had access, to the most authentic documents as imperial historiographer, an office to which he was appointed in 1803, and the work is a work in the highest repute (1766-1826).
[Karikal] (93), a French possession in India, on the Coromandel coast, 150 m. S. of Madras; rears and exports rice in large quantities.
[Karli], a famous temple-cave in Bombay Presidency, on the Bombay-Poona road; dates from the 1st century B.C. at latest.
[Karma], the unbroken sequence, according to the Theosophists, of cause and effect, in which every effect is regarded the cause of the next.
[Karman], the name given in the Brahminical philosophy and in Buddhism to that act of the soul by which, as is conceived, it determines its own destiny, a truly serious conception, and in itself soul affecting.
[Karmathians], originally a secret society of the Ismaîlis, developed into a religious and communistic sect, and waged a great peasants' war under successive leaders between A.D. 900 and 950; Mecca was captured 930; the movement of the Karmathians did much to overthrow the power of the Khalifate.