Gandha Banik. Gandhabanik
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(From People of India/ National Series Volume VIII. Readers who wish to share additional information/ photographs may please send them as messages to the Facebook community, Indpaedia.com. All information used will be gratefully acknowledged in your name.)
Gandha Banik
Synonyms: Bania, Bene, Gandha Bania, Putuli [West Bengal] Groups/subgroups: Aut Asram, Chhatris Asram, Desa Asram, Sankha Asram [West Bengal]
- Subcastes: Asram, Aut Asram, Chhatris Asram, Desa Asram, Sankha Asram [H.H. Risley]
Titles: Baisya Ratna, Bandhu, Kabi Sekhar, Roybahadur, Sadhu, Samaj [West Bengal] De, Dhar, Kar, Khan, Laha, Nag, Sadhu, Saha [H.H. Risley] Surnames: Banik, Datta, Daw, Dey, Laha, Nag, Sadhu, Saha [West Bengal] Gotra: Alambayana, Bharadwaja, Goutam, Kashyapa, Modgalya, Sandilya [West Bengal] Sections: Alambayana, Bharadwaja, Kasyap, Krishnatreya, Modgalya, Nrisingha, Ras Rishi, Sabarna, Sandilya [H.H. Risley]
Notes
This caste claims to be the same as the Banya of Hindustan, and traces its descent from Chandra Bhava, commonly called Chand Saudagar, "an accomplished man, the son of Kotis-Vara, the lord of crores," and Saha Saudagar, mentioned in the Padma Purana. Although this ancient lineage is assumed, the caste no longer wears the Brahamical thread; and instead of mourning like the Agarwala Banyas for thirteen, mourns like pure Sudras for thirty days.
Another story of their origin is current. Kubja, the hunchbacked slave girl of Rajah Kansa, was carrying home spices and sandal wood when Krishna first met her. The son born of their subsequent liaison was naturally the first spice seller, and the father of all Gandha-baniks.
In Bengal this caste numbers 127,178 individuals, being most numerous in Burdwan, 32,105, Murshidabad 11,016, Birbhum 10,165, Nadiya 8,010, and Dacca 6,634. In the city of Dacca alone from one hundred and fifty to two hundred houses, representing a population of about a thousand, are occupied by them.
The Gandha-baniks of Eastern Bengal have four Sreni, or subdivisions, namely, Aut, Desa, Sankha, and Chhattis, or thirty-six ; the three last intermarrying and eating together. The Aut has a family called Dhaula, the Desa one named Dhallar, after villages where they resided, while other Sreni are to be found in the neighbourhood of Calcutta and Murshidabad.
The titles of the Aut Sreni are Dutta, Dhur, Kar, Nag, Dhar, and De; of the Desa, Saha, Sadhu, Laha, and Kahn. The caste has six powerful dals, or unions, in Dacca city, the Dalpatis, or head-men being persons of great respectability. In one of the "dals" a curious marriage custom, said to have been observed by their forefathers when they first entered Bengal, is still preserved.
The bridegroom climbs a "Champa" tree, and sits there while the bride is carried round on a stool seven times. Should no tree be available, a Champa log, placed beneath a canopy, or a platform made of Champa wood planks, is substituted and ornamented with gilt flowers resembling the real Champa blossoms.
The other "dals," who follow the usual Sudra marriage service, privately associate with this one, but never publicly.
Bridal dresses are made of yellow silk (Cheoli) with a red striped border, the bride wearing hers for ten days after marriage.
The large majority of Gandha-baniks are Vaishnavas, a few Saivas.
All Bengali shopkeepers worship Gandhesvari, a form of Durga, every morning and evening; but on the full moon of Baisakh (April-May) the Gandha-baniks hold a special service in her honour, arranging in a pyramidal form the weights, scales, drugs, and account books, and placing in front a goblet daubed over with red lead. The caste Brahman then comes and repeats several invocations, soliciting the favour of the goddess during the ensuing year.
The Gandha-banik is a spice seller, or "Epicier," as well as a druggist. He will not sell rice, vegetables, salt, oil, or spirits, but he will almost every other grocery. He is often called by the Hindi term "Pansari," which signifies a dealer in groceries, spices, and herbs. Their comparatively high position among Sudra castes is owing to the circumstance that sandal wood and spices, essential for Hindu religious rites, can only be procured at their shops.
The Gandha-banik obtains his drugs and spices direct from Calcutta, or from the place where they are produced, and buys quinine, iodide of potassium, and sarsaparilla from English druggists. He also sells tin, lead, pewter, copper, and iron, and retails, if licensed, saltpetre, sulphur, and gunpowder, as well as chemicals used by pyrotechnists, and dispenses medicines ordered by Kabirajs.
Although Gandha-baniks possess no pharmacopoeia, and are ignorant of chemistry, they display wonderful sharpness in distinguishing salts and minerals. Every Gndha-banik has the reputation of being a doctor, and like the druggists of Europe, he is often consulted, and prescribes for trifling ailments. Drugs, at the present day, ars sold by apothecary's weight, other articles by the bazar weight of eighty sicca to a ser. Kabirajs, however, still use the old Hindu weights, "Pala," "Rati," "Masha," and "Jau." Boys able to read and write Bengali are apprenticed to a Gandha banik, who makes him familiar with the appearance, namees, and prices of drugs, which, it is said, amount in a genuine Pansari's shop to three hundred and sixty kinds.
Most of these go to form the different kinds of Pat, or alterative medicine, greatly relied on in Hindu therapeutics. The Gandha-banik is expected to know the proper ingredients in each Pat, as well as the proper quantity of each. In the preparation of pills, goat's milk, or lime-juice and water, are used, but by some druggists the juice of the Ghi-Kuwar (Aloe perfoliata1) is preferred.
The Gandha-banik retails "Charas," Bhang, opium, and Ganjha, but some have scruples about selling the last, and employ a Muhammadan servant to do so. Most of the shops for the sale of Ganjha, however, are leased by members of this caste, who pay a Sunri, or Muhammadan, to manage them.
1 Champaka (Michelia champaca).
