On November 24-25, 2014, the Institute of Oriental Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences hosted the Roerich Readings on the topic "Problems of Text Formation and Culture in Ancient and Medieval India and Central Asia". V. V. Vertogradova (Institute of Oriental Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences) in her opening speech noted that Dmitry Nikolaevich Lelyukhin, a member of the Department of Oriental History of the Institute of Oriental Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences, a well-known researcher of epigraphy and history of India and Nepal (1956-2014), was a regular speaker at the Roerich Readings. When the readings were going through difficult times during the crisis of the 1990s, he put a lot of effort into reviving them. V. V. Vertogradova suggested that the current readings should be dedicated to the memory of D. N. Lelyukhin. Those present observed a minute of silence in his memory. A. A. Vigasin (ISAA MSU) made a report "The King, his enemy, friend and others (on the "Arthashastra" of Kautili)", in which he outlined his interpretation of the "circle of states" scheme of the "Arthashastra" in the context of the culture that gave rise to it. According to this scheme, the main pieces on the political "playing board" were: 1) enemy (ari), 2) its opposite-friend (mitra), 3) madhyama (literally, "being in the middle") - that is, both an enemy and a friend at the same time, 4) udasina (literally, "indifferent, neutral") - one who is neither an enemy nor a friend. Such ideas, according to the speaker, correspond to the well-known tetralemma of Indian logic-catuṣkoṭikā, which is fully found in the Brahmajala Sutta (11.27). There are four possible answers to the question of the existence of the "other world": either it exists; or it does not exist; or it exists and at the same time it does not exist; or, finally, it cannot be said that it exists or that it does not exist (athi, nathi, athi ca...nathi ca, nevathi na nathi paro loko). Therefore, the "circle ... Read more