The Political Institutions and Theories of the Hindus: A Study in Comparative Politics c16.s2.t1.11

c16.s2.t1.11

In the first place, the doctrine of *mandala* is essentially the doctrine of *vijigîsu* (aspirant to conquest) or *Siegfried*. It is the cult of expansion. Now, the *Mahâbhârata*⁶ inculcates the ethics of "manliness as the highest thing" and characterizes it as consisting in a ceaseless "upward striving". The same aspiration to "press only up" and "bend not" or "elect glory even at the cost of life" can influence each and all of the states on earth. The doctrine becomes necessarily a spur to the struggle for existence, self-assertion and world domination among the *Siegfrieds*. The conception is thus altogether a dynamic factor calculated to disturb the equilibrium and *status quo* of international politics.