Matsya was one of the sixteen Mahajanapadas mentioned in the Buddhist text Anguttara Nikaya. The founder of the kingdom of the Matsya was Virata. It consisted of the present-day Alwar, Jaipur and Bharatpur.
The historian V. A. Smith has called Samudragupta the ‘Napoleon’ of India because of his policy of war and conquest. He started with the conquest of his immediate neighbours and then by campaigns to the east and the south.