The Rajamandala (orRāja-maṇḍala meaning "circle of kings";[1] मण्डल, maṇḍala is a Sanskrit word that means "circle") was formulated by the Indian author Chanakya (Kautilya) in his work on politics, the Arthashastra (written between 4th century BCE and 2nd century CE). It describes circles of friendly and enemy states surrounding the king's (raja) state.[2][3] Also known as Mandala theory of foreign policyorMandala theory, the theory has been called as one of Kautilya's most important postulations regarding foreign policy.[4][5][6]
The term draws a comparison with the mandala of the Hindu and Buddhist worldview; the comparison emphasises the radiation of power from each power center, as well as the non-physical basis of the system. In particular, it postulates that a neighboring state or neighbor of a natural friend is a natural enemy and that a neighbor of a natural enemy is a natural friend, such that one can visualize a set of concentric circles emanating from any given state, with alternating circles including enemies and allies of that state respectively.[5]
The terminology was revived two millenniums later as a result of twentieth-century efforts to comprehend patterns of diffuse but coherent political power. Metaphors such as social anthropologist Tambiah's idea of a "galactic polity",[7] describe such political patterns as the mandala. Historian Victor Lieberman preferred the metaphor of a "solar polity,"[8] as in the solar system, where there is one central body, the sun, and the components or planets of the solar system.[9] The "Rajamandala" concept of ancient India was the prototype for the Mandala model of South East Asian political systems in later centuries, established by British historian O. W. Wolters.[10][11]
Kautilya is most famous for outlining the so-called Mandala theory of foreign policy, in which immediate neighbors are considered as enemies, but any state on the other side of a neighboring state is regarded as an ally [...]
Center for Southeast Asian Studies
