Bania 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 and other northern states. Traditionally, the main occupations of the community are merchants, bankers, money-lenders, and owners of commercial enterprises.
16th century Portuguese painting of a Baneane merchant from Cambay.
Bania men of Surat, Gogo, and Ahmedabad, Gujarat, British India.
Bania women in British India. Image taken before 1860.
Baniyas of Delhi
Agrawal is a Hindu Bania community. The Banias of northern India are really a cluster of several communities, of which the Agarwal Banias, Maheshwari Banias, Oswal Banias, and Porwal Banias are mentioned separately in connection with certain They are found throughout northern and central India, mainly in the states of Rajasthan, Haryana, Punjab, Jammu and kashmir, Chandigarh, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Delhi, Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh. They are also found in Pakistani provinces of Punjab and Sindh, though at the time of the partition of India, most of them migrated across the newly created border to independent India. The majority religions followed by the Agrawals include Vaishnava Hinduism and Jainism.
Agrasen ki Baoli in Delhi, which was built by the Agrawal community during the Tughlaq dynasty in India.