Being literate, the Banias were not infrequently employed as ministers
and treasurers in Rajput states. Forbes says, in an account of
an Indian court: "Beside the king stand the warriors of Rajput
race or, equally gallant in the field and wiser far in council,
the Wania (Bania) Muntreshwars, already in profession puritans
of peace, and not yet drained enough of their fiery Kshatriya
blood.... It is remarkable that so many of the officers possessing
high rank and holding independent commands are represented to have
been Wanias." [124] Colonel Tod writes that Nunkurn, the Kachhwaha
chief of the Shekhawat federation, had a minister named Devi Das of
the Bania or mercantile caste, and, like thousands of that caste,
energetic, shrewd and intelligent. [125] Similarly, Muhaj, the Jadon
Bhatti chief of Jaisalmer, by an unhappy choice of a Bania minister,
completed the demoralisation of the Bhatti state. This minister was
named Sarup Singh, a Bania of the Jain faith and Mehta family, whose
descendants were destined to be the exterminators of the laws and
fortunes of the sons of Jaisal. [126] Other instances of the employment
of Bania ministers are to be found in Rajput history. Finally, it
may be noted that the Banias are by no means the only instance of a
mercantile class formed from the Rajputs. The two important trading
castes of Khatri and Bhatia are almost certainly of Rajput origin,
as is shown in the articles on those castes.