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TRIBES IN ANCIENT INDIA
Chap. 63) 1 cannot be proved to have any connection with the Matsya people. Nor is there anything in the account of the Matsyas to show that the fish was an object of worship among them, or was ever regarded with any special veneration. The fish incarnation of Visnu has nothing specifically to do with the Matsya people. There is, in fact, no valid reason for thinking that such Indo-Aryan tribal names as Matsya (fish), Aja (goat), and Vatsa (calf) have anything to do with totemism.
Coming down to the Satapatha Brāhmana,2 we find that a Matsya king, Dhyasan Dvaitavana, is mentioned among the great monarchs of ancient times who acquired renown among the Vedic Aryan people owing to their performance of the horse sacrifice. We shall have occasion to mention this king again in connection with the lake to which he gave his name.
In the Kausītaki Upanisad, the Matsyas are mentioned along with other tribes, viz. 'the Uśīnaras, Kuru-Pañcālas, and KāśiVidehas. In the Gopatha Brāhmaṇa, they are connected with the Sālvas, a Ksatriya tribe in their neighbourhood, and mentioned along with other well-known Ksatriya tribes of the Vedic period, such as the Kuru-Pañcālas, Anga-Magadhas, Kāśi-Košalas and Vaśa-Ušīnaras. The relation of the Matsyas with the Sālvas is also attested by the Mahābhārata. King Suśarmā of the Trigarttas, addressing Duryodhana, says: 'We have been defeated more than once by the Matsyas and Sālvas (Matsya-Śālveyakaih).'5 Evidently the Sālvas were neighbours of the Matsyas and their allies in Vedic and Epic times. In the Padmapurāņa (Chap. 3) and the Vişnudharmottara Mahāpurāna (Chap. 9), Matsya is mentioned as one of the Janapadas of Bhāratavarşa.
In later times, we find the Matsyas associated with the Cedis and the Śūrasenas. Among the kings who brought about the ruin of their own tribes and families, the Mahābhārata (Vol. 74, 16) mentions a King Sahaja who was instrumental in causing the destruction of the Cedi-Matsyas. In the Paurānic age the Matsyas are spoken of along with the Sūrasenas and the Cambridge History of India observes that the two peoples are constantly associated, and may possibly have been united under one king. In the Bhīşmaparvan of the Mahābhārata, the Cedi-Matsya-Karūşas are grouped together in one passage, the Cedi-Matsyas in another, and the Cedi
1 The Vāyupurāna (Chap. 99) also refers to this King Matsya born of Uparicara Vasu and a fish.
2 Sata patha Brāhmana, XIII, 5, 4, 9; S.B.E., Vol. XLIV, p. 398. 3 Kausitaki Up., IV, I. Trsl. by Max Müller, S.B.E., Vol. I, p. 300. 4 Gopatha Brāhmana, 1, 2, 9; Bibliotheca Indica Series, ed. Dr. R. L. Mitra, p. 30. 5 Moh., Virāta parvan, Chap. 30, pp. 1-2.
6 Vol. I, p. 316.
