Bania (also spelled Baniya, Banija, Banya, Vaniya, Vani, Vania and Vanya)[1] is a mercantile caste mainly from the Indian states of Gujarat and Rajasthan, with strong diasporic communities in Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, West Bengal, Maharashtra (mainly Mumbai) and other northern states.[2][3][4] Traditionally, the main occupations of the community are merchants, bankers, money-lenders, and (in modern times) owners of commercial enterprises.[5][6]
Schrader1997
was invoked but never defined (see the help page).Hanks2003
was invoked but never defined (see the help page).By the late eighteenth century, a large number of Bania and Parsi merchants had relocated to Bombay.
John Malcolm, a British traveller, wrote in 1829, 'almost every businessman in Madhya Pradesh is a Baniya. Most of them are Marwaris from Rajasthan and some from Gujarat'