A member of a mercantile or trading caste in South Asia, traditionally engaged in commerce and money-lending.
From Hindi and Sanskrit 'vaniiya' or 'vanij,' meaning merchant or trader, with the 'b' prefix being a dialectical variation common in some Indian languages.
In pre-colonial India, the Baniya caste developed sophisticated banking and credit systems centuries before European banks existed, creating networks of trust that allowed commerce across vast distances without modern technology.
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