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THE PHILOSOPHY OF SUCCESS world-empire and fixed the foundations of their own by winning control of both Canada and India. Then once again Britain joined forces against France when Napoleon's campaigns were the threat, assisting Portugal and Spain in the Peninsular War (1804-14), as well as Russia, Austria, Prussia, and the Netherlands at Waterloo. But the Crimean War (1854-56) saw England united with France (for the first time in some two hundred years), together with Turkey and Savoy, to counterbalance Russia, which now was prcssing dangerously to the Dardanelles. Britain supported Japan to weaken Russia in 1903-04, but in the first World War was at the side of Russia-as well as of France again-against the combination of Germany and Austria.
This remarkable game of weights and counterweights is one that was taken very seriously by the ancient kings and princes of India. There the batilefield of the contending powers was the vast landscape of a subcontinent about the size of Europe but much less broken by difficult mountain ranges. Though interspersed with treacherous jungles and deserts, India's various parts were linked by broad rivers and far-stretching plains; almost every kingdom was surrounded by enemy neighbors and open to attack from every side. There prevailed, consequently, a situation of perpetual distrust, such as we know, for example, on the much smaller stage of the Balkans.
The principal Ilindu formula for the arrangement of foreign alliances and coalitions is based on a pattern of concentric rings of natural enemies and allies. Eaci king is to regard his own realm as located at the center of a kind of target, surrounded by "rings" (maņdalas) which represent, alternately, his natural enemies and his natural allics. The enemies are represented by the first surrounding ring; these are his immediate neighbors, all alert to pounce. The second ring then is that of his natural friends, i.e., the kings just to the rear of his neighbors, who threaten them in turn through the very fact of being neighbors. Then beyond is a ring of remoter danger, interesting primarily as supplying reinforcement to the enemies directly at hand. Fur
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| SR No. | 007309 |
| Book Title | Philosophies of India |
| Original Sutra Author | N/A |
| Author | Heinrich Zimmer, Joseph Campbell |
| Publisher | Routledge and Kegan Paul Ltd |
| Publication Year | 1953 |
| Total Pages | 709 |
| Language | English |
| Classification | Book_English |
| File Size | 34 MB |