History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v4.c62.496.6

v4.c62.496.6

the udāsīna is a powerful king whose realm may be situated in front or in the rear or even at a distance from that of the vijigīṣu, but he is indifferent for some reason or other to the activities of the vijigīṣu. The Mit. on Yāj. I. 345 observes that the udāsīna also is of three kinds and the prākṛta udāsīna is the overlord of the State that is separated from the central state (vijigīṣu) by two intervening States; the madhyama (or *madhyastha* acc. to Nītivākyāmṛta p. 318) is the immediate neighbour of both the vijigīṣu and his enemy, but wants to remain neutral in the conflict of the two for some reason. It will have been noticed that the vijigīṣu, the enemy, the madhyama and the udāsīna are independent catagories, while four out of the remaining eight others viz. mitra, mitramitra, ākranda, ākrandāsāra can be grouped under vijigīṣu, while the other four viz. arimitra, arimitramitra, pārṣṇigrāha and pārṣṇigrāhāsāra may be grouped under ari. It is therefore that Manu (VII. 155-156) speaks of the four prakṛtis (vijigīṣu, śatru, madhyama and udāsīna) as the *mūla* (basis) of the maṇḍala theory and Kām. VIII. 20 informs us that Maya declared that a maṇḍala was constituted by these four. Kām. VIII. 86 gives it as his own opinion that maṇḍala is constituted by *mitra*, *udāsīna* and *ripu* (enemy) only²⁹⁴. Kauṭilya says that the maṇḍala is constituted as explained above by twelve *prakṛtis*. Uśanas was of the same opinion (Kām. VIII. 22) and Kām. (VIII.