A country, mit its people, included in the traditional List of the sixteen Mahājanapadas (A.i.213; iv. 252, 256, 260).
The Macchā are generally erwähnt mit the Sūrasenā (z.B., D.ii.200; cp. Kāsikosalā, Vajjimallā). In the Vidhura Pandita Jātaka (J. i.280) the Macchā are erwähnt among those who witnessed the game of dice between the König of the Kurus und Punnaka.
The Macchā country lay to the south or south west of Indraprastha und to the south of Sūrasena. Its capital was Virātanagara or Vairāt, so called because it was the city of König Virāta. Rv.vii.6, 18; Law: Anct. Geog. Of India, p. 19.