https://en.bharatpedia.org/w/index.php?action=history&feed=atom&title=Bania_%28caste%29Bania (caste) - Revision history2026-08-18T11:01:38ZRevision history for this page on the wikiMediaWiki 1.43.6https://en.bharatpedia.org/w/index.php?title=Bania_(caste)&diff=453026&oldid=prevIrmaBracy4216: refine intro additionally and updated info per sources2026-03-14T00:50:24Z<p>refine intro additionally and updated info per sources</p>
<a href="//en.bharatpedia.org/w/index.php?title=Bania_(caste)&diff=453026&oldid=187072">Show changes</a>IrmaBracy4216https://en.bharatpedia.org/w/index.php?title=Bania_(caste)&diff=187072&oldid=prev>Vycl1994 at 02:31, 23 September 20212021-09-23T02:31:25Z<p></p>
<p><b>New page</b></p><div>{{Short description|An Indian sub-caste}}<br />
{{About|the community of India|other uses|Bania (disambiguation)}}<br />
{{Use dmy dates|date=December 2019}}<br />
{{Use Indian English|date=October 2014}}<br />
[[File:KITLV 87170 - William Johnson - Bania women in British India - Before 1860.jpeg|thumb|Bania women in [[British India]]. Image taken before 1860]]__NOTOC__<br />
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The '''Bania''' (also spelled as '''Baniya''', '''Banija''', '''Banya''', '''Vaniya''', '''Vani''', '''Vania''' and '''Vanya''') is an occupational community of [[merchant]]s, [[banker]]s, [[money-lender]]s, and (in modern times) owners of [[commercial enterprise]]s.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Hardiman|first=David|date=1996|title=Usury, Dearth and Famine in Western India|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/651058|journal=Past & Present|volume=152|issue=152|pages=113–156|doi=10.1093/past/152.1.113|jstor=651058|issn=0031-2746}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|last=Cheesman|first=David|date=1982|title='The Omnipresent Bania:' Rural Moneylenders in Nineteenth-Century Sind|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/312116|journal=Modern Asian Studies|volume=16|issue=3|pages=445–462|doi=10.1017/S0026749X00015262|jstor=312116|issn=0026-749X}}</ref> The community is composed of several sub-castes including the [[Agarwal|Agarwal Banias]], [[Baranwal|Baranwal Banaa]] , [[Porwal|Porwal Banias]], [[Gandhabanik]] and [[Wani (surname)|Wani Banias]], among others.<ref name="Hanks2003">{{cite book |last1=Hanks |first1=Patrick |title=Dictionary of American Family Names |url=https://www.google.co.in/books/edition/Dictionary_of_American_Family_Names/FJoDDAAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=dictionary+of+american+family+names+bania&pg=PR96&printsec=frontcover|date=8 May 2003 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-977169-1 |page=xcvi |language=en}}</ref> The term is used in a wider sense in [[Bengal]] than it is elsewhere in India, where it is applied to all money-lenders and indigenously developed bankers, irrespective of caste.<ref name="Schrader1997">{{cite book|last=Schrader|first=Heiko|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8rf7nIIz8ikC&pg=PA68|title=Changing financial landscapes in India and Indonesia: sociological aspects of monetization and market integration|publisher=LIT Verlag Münster|year=1997|isbn=978-3-8258-2641-3|page=68}}</ref> Most Banias follow [[Hinduism]] and [[Jainism]] but a few have converted to [[Sikhism]], [[Islam]], [[Christianity]] and [[Buddhism]].<ref>{{cite book |last1=Marenco |first1=Ethne K. |title=The Transformation of Sikh Society |url=https://www.google.co.in/books/edition/The_Transformation_of_Sikh_Society/OeseAAAAMAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1|date=1974 |publisher=HaPi Press |page=151 |language=en |quote=The Banias were again predominantly Hindu, but there were many Jain Banias and also Sikh and Muslim Banias in lesser numbers, and very few Buddhist Banias. Such was the picture in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Tyler |first1=Stephen A. |title=India: An Anthropological Perspective |date=1986 |publisher=Waveland Press |isbn=978-0-88133-245-2 |page=186 |language=en |quote=Some, like the Khojah caste, are Bania groups converted to Islam by Muslim pirs (saints).}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|last=John|first=Jose Kalapura|title=King, Fort, Zamindaris and Missionaries: The Founding of Bihar's Oldest Christian Community, 1745|date=2000|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/44148177|journal=Proceedings of the Indian History Congress|volume=61|pages=1011–1028|jstor=44148177|issn=2249-1937}}</ref><br />
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The Etymological origin lays in the Sanskrit word ''vanik'', and deems them to be India's "pre-eminent" trading community, historically.<ref>{{cite book|last=Habib|first=Irfan|author-link=Irfan Habib|editor1-link=James Tracy (historian) |editor-first=James D. |editor-last=Tracy |chapter=Merchant Communities in Precolonial India|title=The Rise of Merchant Empires: Long-Distance Trade in the Early Modern World, 1350-1750|year=1990|publisher=Cambridge University Press|pages=371–99 |doi=10.1017/CBO9780511563089 |isbn=978-0-52145-735-4}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=IHLaAAAAMAAJ|title= Reservation, Action for Social Equality|author=Ishwari Prasad<br />
|publisher=Criterion Publications|year=1986|access-date=23 February 2021|quote=Here we are concerned only with upper backwards which have four castes ; Yadav ( 11.0 per cent ) , Koeri ( 4.0 per cent ) , Kurmi ( 3.5 per cent ) and Bania ( 0.6 per cent ) .}}</ref><br />
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== See also ==<br />
* [[Vaishya]]<br />
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==References==<br />
{{Reflist}}<br />
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==Further reading==<br />
*{{cite journal |title= 'The Omnipresent Bania:' Rural Moneylenders in Nineteenth-Century Sind |first=David |last=Cheesman |journal=Modern Asian Studies |volume=16 |issue=3 |year=1982 |pages=445–462 |doi=10.1017/S0026749X00015262 |jstor=312116}}<br />
*{{cite journal |title=The British and the Moneylender in Nineteenth-Century India |first=Thomas R. |last=Metcalf |author-link=Thomas R. Metcalf |journal=The Journal of Modern History |volume=34 |issue=4 |date=December 1962 |pages=390–397 |doi=10.1086/239182 |jstor=1880056|s2cid=145246030 }}<br />
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[[Category:Social groups of India]]<br />
[[Category:Bania communities| ]]</div>>Vycl1994