Vedic Index of Names and Subjects v2.c4.s4.85

v2.c4.s4.85

2. Matsya appears to be the name of a people in one passage of the Rigveda,¹ where they are ranged with the other enemies of Sudās, although it is possible to see merely the sense of ‘fish’ in that passage. In the list of Aśvamedhins, ‘offerers of the horse sacrifice,’ in the Śatapatha Brāhmaṇa,² Dhvasan Dvaitavana is mentioned as a Matsya king (Mātsya). The Matsyas as a people occur also in the Kauṣītaki Upaniṣad³ in connexion with the Vaśas,⁴ and in the Gopatha Brāhmaṇa⁵ in connexion with Śalvas. In Manu⁶ the Kurukṣetra, the Matsyas, the Pañcālas, and the Śūrasenakas comprise the land of the Brahmin Ṛṣis (brahmarṣi-deśa). There is no reason to doubt that the Matsyas occupied much the same territory as in Epic times, say Alwar, Jaipur, Bharatpur.⁷