Uparichara Vasu was the son of King Krtaka and a descendant of Kuru of Puru Dynasty. He lived in Dvapara Yuga. He was a contemporary of Kuru king Shantanu. He was devoted to Truth and Virtue. He was named so because Upari - Upwards and Chara - Going i.e. The one who goes Upwards always and He was having a flying chariot and hence he was named so. He is Described in The Mahabharata and. One day, he decided to give up the Kingdom, Kingship and rule and decided to do penance to please Lord Indra. So, He made severe penance and Indra and devas appeared before him and promised him with eternal friendship and great bliss in heaven and also gave him a garland which was made of Lotuses of Kalpaka Vrksha was given in a mark of friendship between him and Vasu. By the blessings of Indra, He conquered Chedi Kingdom. Then he returned to his kingdom. There was a river named Suktimati which flowed in his capital and hence the capital was named as Suktimati. The neighboring mountain named Kolahala was once maddened by lust and attacked this river. The river sought the protection of Uparichara Vasu. Vasu chased the mountain with his foot and by the union of the mountain and the river a boy and a girl was born. The boy was made Commander-in-Chief of the army of Vasu. The girl named Girika was married to Vasu and begot five sons from her namely, Brihadratha who was the Father of Jarasandha was the prince of Magadha Kingdom, Pratyagraha was the prince of Chedi Kingdom whose descendant was Shishupala, Kusamva, Mavella and Yadu. One day, When Vasu and Girika was roaming over the palace gardens, The Pitrs of Vasu appeared before him and summoned to slay the running deer. He did not disobey the words of his Ancestors, He set out for a hunt to slay the deer. While wandering in the forest, He came upon aclove of Asoka Trees, there was divine fragrance in the air, The king could not bear the desire of begetting children and so that he gave the seeds and summoned a hawk to carry the seeds to his beloved. The hawk started carrying the seed and was seen by another hawk which misunderstood that it was carrying a piece of meat and fought with it. The fighting between these two hawks left the seed in the mouth of a fish of River Yamuna and the seed transformed into twins a boy and a girl. Some fishermen belonged to Uparichara's Kingdom cut the fish and found the babies and took the babies to Vasu. The King chose the boy to be grown up in his household and gave the girl to his fisherman named Dasaraj. The Girl was named Matsyagandha which means the one who is having the smell of a fish. She was Satyavati who later married Shantanu and who was the mother of Sage Veda Vyasa and The Great-Grandmother of Pandavas and Kauravas. The boy was named Matsya because he was born out of a fish and he is who founded Matsya Kingdom whose descendant was Virata who founded the kingdom's capital Viratanagara.
