Banyan merchants
Banyan merchants (Banyan through Portuguese banian and Arabic بنيان, banyān, from the Gujarati વાણિયો, vāṇiyo, meaning 'merchant'.[1]) is an expression used widely in the Indian Ocean trade to refer to Indian merchants who are clearly distinguished from others, by their clothing, by their religious and cultural dietary choices, and by the manner in which they conduct trade.
References
- ^ "Banyan" (Online library of books, journals, articles.). Reference>Hobson Jobson>B BANYAN>Page 1. Bibliomania free online literature and study guides. February 6, 2009. Retrieved May 14, 2012.
The word was adopted from Vaniya, a man of the trading caste (in Gujarati vaniyo), and that comes from Skt. vanij, 'a merchant.' The terminal nasal may be a Portuguese addition (as in palanquin, mandarin, Bassein), or it may be taken from the plural form vaniyan. It is probable, however, that the Portuguese found the word already in use by the Arab traders. Sidi'Ali, the Turkish Admiral, uses it in precisely the same form, applying it to the Hindus generally; and in the poem of Sassui and Panhu, the Sindian Romeo and Juliet, as given by Burton in his Sindh (p. 101), we have the form Waniyan....
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