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.
In the 6th century BCE the cultivable land was divided between the people. The beneficiaries were granted only the revenue of these lands and no administrative authority. There was emergence of the notion of private property, as there are references to the gift and sale of land.