Balija: Difference between revisions

| languages              = [[Telugu language|Telugu]], [[Kannada language|Kannada]], [[Tamil language|Tamil]]

| populated_states      = [[Andhra Pradesh]], [[Telangana]], [[Karnataka]], [[Kerala]], [[Tamil Nadu]]

'''Balija''' is a caste of the [[India]]n states of [[Andhra Pradesh]], [[Telangana]], [[Tamil Nadu]], [[Karnataka]], and [[Kerala]].

Variations of the name in use in the medieval era were ''Balanja'', ''Bananja'', ''Bananju'', ''Banajiga'' and ''Banijiga'', with probable cognates ''Balijiga'', ''Valanjiyar'', ''Balanji'', ''Bananji'' and derivatives such as ''Baliga'', all of which are said to be derived from the Sanskrit term ''Vanik'' or ''Vanij'', for trader.<ref name="EpigraphiaIndica1983">{{cite journal|author1=Devadatta Ramkrishna Bhandarkar|author2=Archaeological Survey of India|title=Epigraphia Indica|journal=Epigraphica|volume=18|year=1983|page=335|quote=As regards the derivation of this word, the late Mr Venkayya says:- In Kanarese banajiga is still used to denote a class of merchants. In Telugu the word balija or balijiga has the same meaning. It is therefore probable that the words valañjiyam, valanjiyar, balañji, banañji, banajiga and balija are cognate, and derived from the Sanskrit vanij|issn=0013-9572|lccn=sa66006469}}</ref>

Beginning in the 9th century, references are found in inscriptions throughout the Kannada and Tamil areas to a trading network, which is sometimes referred to as a guild, called the [[Five Hundred Lords of Ayyavolu]] that provided trade links between trading communities in [[Tamil Nadu]] and [[Karnataka]].<ref>{{Cite book|last1=Stein|first1=Burton|title=A History of India|last2=Arnold|first2=David|date=4 February 2010|publisher=John Wiley & Sons|isbn=978-1444323511|pages=120}}</ref> From the 13th century, inscriptions referring to "''Vira Balanjyas''" (warrior merchants) started appearing in the Andhra country. The ''Vira Balanjyas'', whose origins are often claimed to lie in the Ayyavolu, represented long-distance trading networks that employed fighters to protect their warehouses and goods in transit. The traders were identified as ''nanadesi'' (of 'many countries') and as ''swadesi'' ('own country').<ref>{{Cite book|last=Stein|first=Burton|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QY4zdTDwMAQC&q=Ayyavolu&pg=PA120|title=A History of India|date=2010-02-04|publisher=John Wiley & Sons|isbn=978-1-4443-2351-1|language=en}}</ref> The terms ''balanjya-setti'' and ''balija'' were also used for these traders, and in later times ''[[naidu]]'' and ''chetti''.<ref name="talbot75">{{cite book |last=Talbot |first=Cynthia |title=Pre-colonial India in Practice: Society, Region, and Identity in Medieval Andhra |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19803-123-9 |year=2001 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=pfAKljlCJq0C |page=75}}</ref> These traders formed collectives called ''pekkandru'' and differentiated themselves from other collectives called ''nagaram'', which probably represented [[Komati (caste)|Komati]] merchants. The ''pekkandru'' collectives also included members of other communities with status titles [[Reddy|reddi]], ''boya'' and ''nayaka''.<ref>{{cite book |last=Talbot |first=Cynthia |title=Pre-colonial India in Practice: Society, Region, and Identity in Medieval Andhra |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19803-123-9 |year=2001 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=pfAKljlCJq0C |page=81}}</ref> They spread all over South India, Sri Lanka, and also some countries in the Southeast Asia.<ref name="SarmaSōmaśēkharaśarma1948">{{citation|last1=Sarma|first1=M Somasekhara|last2=Sōmaśēkharaśarma|first2=Mallampalli|title=History of the Reddi Kingdoms (circa. 1325 A.D. to Circa 1448 A.D.)|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=diYLAQAAIAAJ|year=1948|publisher=Andhra University|page=396}}</ref>

The classification of people as Balija was one of many challenges for the [[Census of India prior to independence|census enumerators of the British Raj era]], whose desire was to reduce a complex social system to one of administrative simplicity using theories of [[evolutionary anthropology]].{{efn|The Raj theories of evolutionary anthropology, typified by the work of [[H. H. Risley]], are nowadays considered to be [[scientific racism]].}} Early Raj census attempts in [[Madras Presidency]] recorded a wide variety of people claiming to be members of Balija subcastes but who appeared to share little in common and thus defied the administrative desire for what it considered to be a rational and convenient taxonomy. Those who claimed to be Chetty had an obvious connection through their engagement in trade and those who called themselves Kavarai were simply using the Tamil word for Balija but, for example, the Linga based their claim to Balija status on a sectarian identification, the Gazula were bangle-makers by occupation, the Telaga had Telugu origins and the Rajamahendram also appeared to be a geographic claim based on their origins in the town of Rajahmundry. Subsequent attempts to rationalise the enumeration merely created other anomalies and caused upset.<ref>{{cite book |title=South India |editor1-first=Christopher John |editor1-last=Baker |editor2-first=D. A. |editor2-last=Washbrook |first=Christopher John |last=Baker |chapter=Figures and Facts: Madras Government Statistics 1880-1940 |publisher=Springer |year=1975 |isbn=978-1-34902-746-0 |pages=222–223 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=fHCwCwAAQBAJ&pg=PA222}}</ref>

* Balija Chettis (or Chetti Balija): Mentioned in several Vijayanagar accounts as wealthy merchants who controlled powerful trading guilds.<ref>{{cite book |title=Vijayanagara |year=1989 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OpxeaYQbGDMC |series=The New Cambridge History of India |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-0-521-26693-2 |page=87 |author-link=Burton Stein |first=Burton |last=Stein}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |title=Constructing the Colonial Encounter: Right and Left Hand Castes in Early Colonial South India |first=Niels |last=Brimnes |publisher=Routledge |year=1999 |isbn=9780700711062 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=HdSABP70H9sC |page=3}}</ref> To secure their loyalty, the Vijayanagar kings made them [[Desai]]s or "superintendents of all castes in the country."<ref>{{cite book |title=Constructing the Colonial Encounter: Right and Left Hand Castes in Early Colonial South India |first=Niels |last=Brimnes |publisher=Routledge |year=1999 |isbn=9780700711062 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=HdSABP70H9sC |page=20}}</ref> They were classified as right-hand castes.<ref>{{cite book |title=Madras: the growth of a colonial city in India, 1780–1840 |page=224 |first=Susan M. |last=Neild |year=1977 |publisher=University of Chicago (PhD dissertation)}}</ref><ref>''Bowmen of Mid-India: a monograph of the Bhils of Jhabua [M. P.] and adjoining territories'', Volume 2, page 243</ref> David Rudner claims that the Balija Chettis became a separate caste from the Balija [[Nayak (title)|Nayak]] warriors as recent as the 19th century; and accordingly they have closer kinship ties to the Nayak warriors than to Chetti merchants.<ref>{{cite journal |title=Religious Gifting and Inland Commerce in Seventeenth-Century South India |first=David West |last=Rudner |journal=The Journal of Asian Studies |volume=46 |issue=2 |date=May 1987 |pages=361–379 |doi=10.2307/2056019 |jstor=2056019 |s2cid=162764761 }}</ref>

*[https://books.google.com/books?id=y089AAAAIAAJ&pg=PA45 ''The Warrior Merchants''], Mittison Mines