Indische Palaographie von circa 350 a. Chr. – circa 1300 p. Chr. c48.s1.7.1

c48.s1.7.1

§ 28. **Trading Castes** (10,680,800): This is the first of the distinctively functional groups to be brought under review. It is not, however, merely a collection of communities each with its separate designation, like those which have preceded it, but contains some general titles denoting the occupation of trading, but which do not include all the castes following that calling in the locality where it prevails. The leading example of these is the Banyā or Vāniā, of upper and western India, under which name are included nearly all the trading classes, but not important castes like the Khatrī and Arōṛā in the Panjāb, or the Bhāṭiā and Lohānā of Sindh. There are grounds for thinking that the exclusion is due to differences of race. The Khatrī and Arōṛā, like the Banyā, derive their origin from Rājputāna, in the larger sense in which that term was used in the preceding paragraph, but the latter affiliate themselves directly to certain clans of Rājputs, whilst the former refer themselves back to the Kṣatriya, and give the western region of Mūltān and upper Sindh as the cradle of their caste. It has been conjectured from the customs and internal structure of the Khatrī and Arōṛā, which differ in some respects from those of the ordinary Brāhmanic castes, that these communities are descended from one of the S'aka colonies which long held the tracts above mentioned.