Editing Mandala (section)

==In politics==
{{See also|Mandala (political model)|Greater India|Indosphere}}

The ''[[Rajamandala]]'' (or ''Raja-mandala''; circle of states) was formulated by the [[India]]n author [[Kautilya]] in his work on politics, the ''[[Arthashastra]]'' (written between 4th century BCE and 2nd century BCE). It describes circles of friendly and enemy states surrounding the king's state.<ref>Singh, Prof. Mahendra Prasad (2011). ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=80q_hd7ASdEC Indian Political Thought: Themes and Thinkers] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160610135521/https://books.google.com/books?id=80q_hd7ASdEC |date=2016-06-10 }}''. Pearson Education India. {{ISBN|8131758516}}. pp. 11-13.</ref>

In historical, social and political sense, the term "mandala" is also employed to denote traditional [[Greater India|Southeast Asian political formations]] (such as federation of kingdoms or vassalized states). It was adopted by 20th century Western historians from ancient Indian political discourse as a means of avoiding the term 'state' in the conventional sense. Not only did Southeast Asian polities not conform to Chinese and European views of a territorially defined state with fixed borders and a bureaucratic apparatus, but they diverged considerably in the opposite direction: the polity was defined by its centre rather than its boundaries, and it could be composed of numerous other tributary polities without undergoing administrative integration.<ref>{{Cite web|last=Dellios|first=Rosita|date=2003-01-01|title=Mandala: from sacred origins to sovereign affairs in traditional Southeast Asia|url=http://epublications.bond.edu.au/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1007&context=cewces_papers&sei-redir=1|access-date=2011-12-11|publisher=Bond University Australia|archive-date=2015-02-03|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150203095708/http://epublications.bond.edu.au/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1007&context=cewces_papers&sei-redir=1|url-status=dead}}</ref> Empires such as [[Pagan Kingdom|Bagan]], [[Ayutthaya kingdom|Ayutthaya]], [[Champa]], [[Khmer empire|Khmer]], [[Srivijaya]] and [[Majapahit]] are known as "mandala" in this sense.