History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v4.c62.496.8

v4.c62.496.8

2) also refers to this number 72, out of which twelve are constituted by kings (*rājaprakṛtis*) and 60 (five sovereignty elements of each of the twelve) are styled (*dravyaprakṛtis*). The Śāntiparva (59. 70-71) also refers to a maṇḍala of 12 kings and to the number 72. Vide N. N. Law's 'Studies in Ancient Hindu Polity' pp. 195-208 for elucidation of the theory of maṇḍala. The theory of maṇḍala has this element of truth in it that on a calculation of probabilities the kings who are the immediate neighbours of a ruler are likely to be his enemies (at least potential) and the kings that are beyond the immediate neighbours may make common cause with the central State taken for discourse in order to crush between them a hostile intermediate State. It suggests that diplomacy may take the lines indicated by position and probabilities. The diagram below will ²⁹⁷ illustrate the idea. Manu (VII. 177 and 180) declares that (state) policy consists briefly in this that a king must so arrange all things or means that the ally, the udāsīna and the śatru cannot harm him or become superior to him. Medhātithi (on Manu VII. 177) remarks that even an ally may become an enemy if his interest so requires (*svārthagativiśācca mitramapyarirbhavati*).