Mandala of Power

Thucydides, Thomas Hobbes, Niccolò Machiavelli, and Hans Morgenthau are listed among the founding fathers of political realism in Western culture. I will try to show that an Indian author and his book – namely Kautilya‘s Arthashastra – offer as much insight and value as some of the best-known political writers. Although it seems aggressively ruthless and mean at times, Arthashastra accounts for a realist view on politics in ancient India. But as Heinrich Zimmer put it, ancient ideas had a strange modern touch to them. It is also the case of this Indian treaty and it will be my task to find its modern implications, starting with the theory of political circles (mandala), which is a genuine realist political model.