Matsya (Sanskrit: मत्स्य) was a Vedic kingdom and later became a part of sixteen Mahajanapadas, which also appears in Hindu Epic literature. The capital of Matsya was at Viratanagari (present-day Bairat, in Rajasthan) which is said to have been named after its founder king, Virata. The name Matsya itself means "fish."
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Bairat in the context of Minor Rock Edict
The Minor Rock Edicts of Ashoka (r. 269–233 BCE) are rock inscriptions which form the earliest part of the Edicts of Ashoka, and predate Ashoka's Major Rock Edicts. These are the first edicts in the Indian language of Emperor Ashoka, written in the Brahmi script in the 11th year of his reign. They follow chronologically the Kandahar Bilingual Rock Inscription, in Greek and in Aramaic, written in the 10th year of his reign (260 BCE), which is the first known inscription of Ashoka.
There are several slight variations in the content of these edicts, depending on location, but a common designation is usually used, with Minor Rock Edict N°1 (MRE1) and a Minor Rock Edict N°2 (MRE2), which does not appear alone but always in combination with Edict N°1), the different versions being generally aggregated in most translations. There is also a minor edict No.3, discovered in Bairat, for the Buddhist clergy.