There has been much difference of opinion as to whether the name
Bania should be taken to signify a caste, or whether it is merely an
occupational term applied to a number of distinct castes. I venture
to think it is necessary and scientifically correct to take it as a
caste. In Bengal the word Banian, a corruption of Bania, has probably
come to be a general term meaning simply a banker, or person dealing
in money. But this does not seem to be the case elsewhere. As a
rule the name Bania is used only as a caste name for groups who are
considered both by themselves and outsiders to belong to the Bania
caste. It may occasionally be applied to members of other castes,
as in the case of certain Teli-Banias who have abandoned oil-pressing
for shop-keeping, but such instances are very rare; and these Telis
would probably now assert that they belonged to the Bania caste. That
the Banias are recognised as a distinct caste by the people is shown
by the number of uncomplimentary proverbs and sayings about them,
which is far larger than in the case of any other caste. [115] In
all these the name Bania is used and not that of any subdivision,
and this indicates that none of the subdivisions are looked upon
as distinctive social groups or castes. Moreover, so far as I am
aware, the name Bania is applied regularly to all the groups usually
classified under the caste, and there is no group which objects to the
name or whose members refuse to describe themselves by it. This is by
no means always the case with other important castes. The Rathor Telis
of Mandla entirely decline to answer to the name of Teli, though they
are classified under that caste. In the case of the important Ahir or
grazier caste, those who sell milk instead of grazing cattle are called
Gaoli, but remain members of the Ahir caste. An Ahir in Chhattisgarh
would be called Rawat and in the Maratha Districts Gowari, but might
still be an Ahir by caste. The Barai caste of betel-vine growers and
sellers is in some localities called Tamboli and not Barai; elsewhere
it is known only as Pansari, though the name Pansari is correctly
an occupational term, and, where it is not applied to the Barais,
means a grocer or druggist by profession and not a caste. Bania,
on the other hand, over the greater part of India is applied only
to persons who acknowledge themselves and are generally recognised
by Hindu society to be members of the Bania caste, and there is no
other name which is generally applied to any considerable section of
such persons. Certain of the more important subcastes of Bania, as
the Agarwala, Oswal and Parwar, are, it is true, frequently known by
the subcaste name. But the caste name is as often as not, or even more
often, affixed to it. Agarwala, or Agarwala Bania, are names equally
applied to designate this subcaste, and similarly with the Oswals and
Parwars; and even so the subcaste name is only applied for greater
accuracy and for compliment, since these are the best subcastes;
the Bania's quarter of a town will be called Bania Mahalla, and its
residents spoken of as Banias, even though they may be nearly all
Agarwals or Oswals. Several Rajput clans are similarly spoken of by
their clan names, as Rathor, Panwar, and so on, without the addition
of the caste name Rajput. Brahman subcastes are usually mentioned
by their subcaste name for greater accuracy, though in their case
too it is usual to add the caste name. And there are subdivisions of
other castes, such as the Jaiswar Chamars and the Somvansi Mehras,
who invariably speak of themselves only by their subcaste name,
and discard the caste name altogether, being ashamed of it, but are
nevertheless held to belong to their parent castes. Thus in the matter
of common usage Bania conforms in all respects to the requirements
of a proper caste name.