The Banias are very strict about food. The majority of them abstain
from all kinds of flesh food and alcoholic liquor. The Kasarwanis are
reported to eat the flesh of clean animals, and perhaps others of the
lower subcastes may also do so, but the Banias are probably stricter
than any other caste in their adherence to a vegetable diet. Many
of them eschew also onions and garlic as impure food. Banias take
the lead in the objection to foreign sugar on account of the stories
told of the impure ingredients which it contains, and many of them,
until recently, at any rate, still adhered to Indian sugar. Drugs are
not forbidden, but they are not usually addicted to them. Tobacco
is forbidden to the Jains, but both they and the Hindus smoke, and
their women sometimes chew tobacco. The Bania while he is poor is
very abstemious, and it is said that on a day when he has made no
money he goes supperless to bed. But when he has accumulated wealth,
he develops a fondness for _ghi_ or preserved butter, which often
causes him to become portly. Otherwise his food remains simple, and
as a rule he confined himself until recently to two daily meals,
at midday and in the evening; but Banias, like most other classes
who can afford it, have now begun to drink tea in the morning. In
dress the Bania is also simple, adhering to the orthodox Hindu
garb of a long white coat and a loin-cloth. He has not yet adopted
the cotton trousers copied from the English fashion. Some Banias in
their shops wear only a cloth over their shoulders and another round
their waist. The _kardora_ or silver waist-belt is a favourite Bania
ornament, and though plainly dressed in ordinary life, rich Marwaaris
will on special festival occasions wear costly jewels. On his head the
Marwari wears a small tightly folded turban, often coloured crimson,
pink or yellow; a green turban is a sign of mourning and also black,
though the latter is seldom seen. The Banias object to taking the
life of any animal. They will not castrate cattle even through their
servants, but sell the young bulls and buy oxen. In Saugor, a Bania
is put out of caste if he keeps buffaloes. It is supposed that good
Hindus should not keep buffaloes nor use them for carting or ploughing,
because the buffalo is impure, and is the animal on which Yama,
the god of death, rides. Thus in his social observances generally
the Bania is one of the strictest castes, and this is a reason why
his social status is high. Sometimes he is even held superior to the
Rajput, as the local Rajputs are often of impure descent and lax in
their observance of religious and social restrictions. Though he soon
learns the vernacular language of the country where he settles, the
Marwari usually retains his own native dialect in his account-books,
and this makes it more difficult for his customers to understand them.