Artwork and Tradition with Devdutt Pattanaik | How mandala system formed governance in India and Southeast Asia | UPSC Present Affairs Information

The chapters of the Rig Veda are known as mandalas — circles of hymns. It’s because not like a e book, the place one strikes from chapter to chapter, the Vedic chapters should not actually chapters. These have been orally transmitted. Every mandala belonged to at least one household. When the final verse was chanted, you returned to the primary verse. There was no motion from one chapter to a different. Every mandala was a string of round syllables. Solely those that knew the secrets and techniques may cut up the syllables into phrases, phrases, verses, and poems.

The phrase Sama of Sama-Veda, attracts consideration to the observe in music of returning to the primary observe in music, making a round loop, a mandala. Phrases like sam-yaka (complete), sam-rajya (empire), sam-vidhan (structure) seize the idea of enclosing circularity – the mandala. The circle will be expanded or contracted. As one rises in knowledge, the circle of data retains increasing. 

Mandala in Jain, Buddhist, and Mauryan traditions

In Jainism, when the Tirthankara attains omniscience (information of the whole lot and everybody), he rises within the air and seems to be dealing with all instructions, and all creatures collect round him in concentric circles, and so they take heed to what he has to say. And everybody feels he’s speaking to them personally of their language at their stage. This was the round meeting generally known as sam-sharana (granting refuge to all). 

In Buddhism, the Buddha’s relics have been positioned below a half-sphere mound that appeared like an overturned bowl and was known as a stupa. Across the stupa was a round path adorned with a round fence, with disc-like decorations, which instructed tales from the lifetime of the Buddha and different Jataka tales. The Buddhists would go on this path in a clockwise path, the stupa all the time on the fitting. This motion in a round method helped the thoughts develop because it helped give attention to the phrases of the Buddha. The round pathway was known as pra-dakshina (in direction of the south) path. This was later adopted in Hindu temples too. 

This brings within the thought of the Buddhist or Jain king generally known as Chakravartin. The wheel ‘chakra’ refers to his sphere of affect. The centre is his capital. The spokes of the wheel are the commerce routes he controls. The circumference is the periphery of his attain. This fashion of conceptualising a kingdom grew to become standard within the Mauryan interval (300 BC) and in Buddhist and Jain societies. 

Circles of energy

From right here, Kautilya, within the Arthashastra (300 AD) comes up with the thought of the Rajamandala, which is a round method of wanting on the kingdom. On the heart is the king. Round him is the land for which he costs hire. Past that’s land for which he costs taxes, in return of which he provides his safety. Past that circle are the lands that pay tribute, and if they don’t pay tribute, he threatens to destroy them. Past which might be the hostile folks, the enemy state, who don’t give him tributes. Past that’s the enemy of the enemy, with whom he exchanges presents, so as to crush the enemy state in between. 

This concept grew to become standard within the Gupta interval, and traveled to South-East Asian kingdoms that are known as Mandala kingdoms. When the king is robust, the mandala expands. When the king is weak, the mandala contracts. The sphere of affect retains altering. That’s how the Indian mannequin of kingship is established, by means of the thought of the circle. 

In Tantrik Buddhism, the mandala system grew to become extra complicated with a number of nodes. Within the centre was Adi-Buddha, round him within the 4 instructions have been the Dhyan-Buddhas, round whom sat the Bodhisattvas. This was how Chanakya’s Raja-mandala grew to become extra elaborate with a wider sphere of affect: with the maharaja within the centre, his rajas round him, and round every of the rajas have been his samantas. Every circle was half of a bigger circle. A extra complicated state polity. 

Evolution of governance

In Odisha, one finds the earliest Tantric mandalas (stupas organized in round codecs) representing the religious realm which influenced the political realm. This design unfold and formed the good round Borobudur design in Java, Indonesia round 900 AD. This design gave kings a mannequin to design their kingdoms. The design influenced structure in addition to work. This mannequin grew to become standard in Tibet, Thailand, Burma, Cambodia and Java, wherever Buddhist and Hindu concepts unfold. This mannequin is how later Hindu temples have been constructed – with main temples surrounded by minor temples which have been surrounded by smaller temples. 

Within the Chakravartin system, management was restricted to commerce routes. Within the Raja-mandala energy was exerted over agricultural lands to gather hire, tax, and tribute. The Tantrik mandala system created a fancy cascade of management with the weaker kings controlling lands, however paying tribute to the stronger kings, who in flip paid tribute to the strongest king. The facility centre saved shifting relying on how highly effective a king was. The mandalas saved organically increasing and contracting. This mannequin of governance was uniquely Indian. 

This mannequin modified with the arrival of Islam, the place there was just one sultan, who distributed land (iqta) to those that have been devoted to him and gave him navy providers in alternate. The round thought was resurrected by Akbar (1600 AD), briefly, when he designed his Diwan-e-Khas, with him within the centre, on his lotus throne. 

Submit Learn Questions

How is the idea of mandalas mirrored in Indian artwork, literature, and music, reminiscent of within the Sama-Veda or tantric designs?

How did mandalas affect architectural designs in Hindu temples and Buddhist stupas throughout India and Southeast Asia?

How did the Rajamandala idea in Kautilya’s Arthashastra affect the political methods of historical Indian kingdoms?

How did the Iqta system below Islamic rule in India differ from the mandala mannequin of governance?

(Devdutt Pattanaik is a famend mythologist who writes on artwork, tradition and heritage.)

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