The Political Institutions and Theories of the Hindus: A Study in Comparative Politics c16.s2.t1.32

c16.s2.t1.32

The "proper study" of the *vijigîṣu*, a Kaiser Wilhelm *in posse*, is, according to the *Manu Samhitâ*,⁴ his own and his enemy's spheres. And how are these spheres located in his imagination? Śukra gives a brief summary of the Siegfried's investigations as to the "balance of forces" or "conjuncture of circumstances" with a view to the "Next War." We are told that the enemies diminish in importance according as they are remote from the "centre of the sphere." First to be dreaded by the *vijigîṣu* are those who are situated around or very near his own state, then those who live farther away,⁵ and so on. With the remoteness of location, enmity, hatred or rivalry naturally declines. Whether a state is to be treated as inimical, indifferent or friendly depends *per se* on its propinquity or distance. The geographical distribution of states influences their psychology in regard to their neighbors as a matter of course in such an order that the positive antipathy of the nearest dwindles into tolerable apathy of the next and gives way to active sympathy and even friendliness of the farthest distant. This, however, is not the only possible grouping of powers in a *vijigîṣu's* estimation. The *Śukra-nîti*¹ gives another order in which the states may be distributed. According to this computation, first are situated the enemies, then come the friends, next the neutrals, and the most remote on all sides are the enemies again.