 The Tarascan state was a prehispanic Mesoamerican empire, roughly covering the geographic area of the present-day Mexican state of Michoacán.In Purépecha, language of the Purépecha, the name of the state was "Iréchecua Tzintzuntzáni", the "lands of Tzintzuntzan".The Purépecha were a nomadic group that arrived in the basin of Lake Pátzcuaro.