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KINGS AND PEOPLES
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the Kuru king Dhananjaya or Ajjuna and Puņņaka the Yakkha. This may lead one to think that the Maochas had formed an alliance with their neighbours, the Kurus and the Sūrasenas. According to the Mahābhārata, the Matsya country was then ruled by king Virāta who was an ally of the Kurus. Its capital Virātanagara was evidently named after king Virāța of the Epic fame. The Macchas as a people had no political importance in the Buddha's time.
Over and above the usual association of the Sūrasenas (Sk. Sūrasenas, Greek Sourasenoi) in the Pali canonical lists of the mahājanapadas, the Vidhurapaņdita Jataka speaks of an occasion when the Sürasenas were present in the Kuru court in the city of Indapatta along with the Macchas, Maddas and Pañcālas. If any historical inference is to be drawn from these combinations, it would be that they were all neighbours and that their realms stood close to one another. Their capital, Madhură (Sk. Mathurā) on the right bank of the Yamunā stood midway between Indapatta and Kosambi on the same river. Strictly speaking, it is the Uttaramadhură which is identified with Maholi, five miles to the south-west of the present town of Mathurā or Muttra." From Samkissa (Sk.
Law, Geography, pp. 20-21.
