Banyan merchants

A Hindoo Family, Banyan Cast (c1830)

This article is about usage of the term around the Indian Ocean. For the caste, see Vaishya. For other usages, see Banyan (disambiguation).

In the Indian Ocean trade, Banyan merchants are Indian merchants who are clearly distinguished from others by their Banyan clothing, their diet, and by the manner in which they conduct trade.[1]

History

The Banyan people are mentioned in the Periplus of the Erythraean Sea, in the context of Indo-Roman trade relations,[2] in Egypt and Sokotra, Dahlak Island and Suakim, Massawa, Muscat, Zanzibar, the Gulf of Aden, Aydhab, Hadramut, Syria, Persia and Europe.[3] In Evliya Çelebi's Seyahatname, it is mentioned that the language of the Rumelian Roma people from Gümülcine (Komotini) has Banyan roots.[4]

References

1. "Banians – Banglapedia". en.banglapedia.org. Retrieved 2020-04-21.
2. Pankhurst, Richard (1974). "The 'Banyan' or Indian Presence at Massawa, the Dahlak Islands and the Horn of Africa". Journal of Ethiopian Studies. 12 (1): 185–212. JSTOR 44324706. Retrieved 30 May 2022.
3. Gabbasov, Sergey (January 2019). "Banyan Leaves: The Route from Maharajas to Pharaohs".
4. https://humstatic.uchicago.edu/slavic/archived/papers/Friedman-OldestBalkRmiw-BDankoff ^[dead link‍]