Matsya ( sa, मत्स्य) was a
Vedic kingdom and later became a part of sixteen
Mahajanapada
The Mahājanapadas ( sa, great realm, from ''maha'', "great", and ''janapada'' "foothold of a people") were sixteen kingdoms or oligarchic republics that existed in ancient India from the sixth to fourth centuries BCE during the second urba ...
s, which also appears in
Hindu Epic literature. The capital of Matsya was at
Viratanagari (present-day
Bairat
Viratnagar previously known as Bairat ( IAST: ) or Bairath ( IAST: ) is a town in northern Jaipur district of Rajasthan, India.
History
Ancient era
According to Huen Tsang, visitor to China, Tonk was under Bairath State or Viratnagar p ...
, in
Rajasthan
Rajasthan (; lit. 'Land of Kings') is a state in northern India. It covers or 10.4 per cent of India's total geographical area. It is the largest Indian state by area and the seventh largest by population. It is on India's northwestern si ...
) which is said to have been named after its founder king,
Virata
Virata ( sa, विराट, IAST ''virāṭa''), was the king of the Matsya Kingdom, in whose court the Pandavas spent a year in concealment during their exile. Virata was married to Queen Sudeshna and was the father of Prince Uttara and Pr ...
.
Mention in Mahabharata
Matsya kingdom was founded by king Matsya who was the twin brother of
Satyavati
Satyavati ( sa, सत्यवती, ; also spelled Satyawati) was the queen of the Kuru. She is the wife of king Shantanu of Hastinapura, and the great-grandmother of the Pandava and Kaurava princes (The principal characters of the Hindu ...
and who was contemporary to
Bhishma.
The ''
Mahabharata
The ''Mahābhārata'' ( ; sa, महाभारतम्, ', ) is one of the two major Sanskrit epics of ancient India in Hinduism, the other being the ''Rāmāyaṇa''. It narrates the struggle between two groups of cousins in the Kuruk ...
'' (V.74.16) refers to a King Sahaja, who ruled over both the Chedis and the Matsyas, which implies that Matsya once formed a part of the
Chedi Kingdom.
References
Kingdoms in the Mahabharata
{{Hindu-myth-stub