‘Banian’ is derived from ‘vaṇija’ or ‘baṇij’, which are Sanskrit words meaning ‘merchant’. The Arabs adopted the term ‘Banian’ from the fourteenth century onwards when the term was first mentioned in legal documents to describe the Hindu merchants from Gujarat in the Arabian coastal ports of southern Yemen and Oman. Then when the Portuguese arrived in the region in the sixteenth century they also referred to them as ‘Banian/Banyan’. The term was later used by the Dutch, English and French when they arrived in the western Indian Ocean in the seventeenth century. This chapter is about the Banian – or Banyan – merchant communities in the western Indian Ocean, particularly those on the Omani coast and in the Gulf before the al-Bu Sa’īdī era in Oman. Recently, we have seen increasing interest in research into this community, its economic influence in the Indian Ocean and its traditions and social structure.

Most of the Banian merchants were Hindus of the Vaishya caste (the third caste, also called the Vani or Vania in western India). The Persian term for a Hindu merchant was gaur/gur (pl. gauran/guran) – which means ‘infidel’ – or gabr (pl. gabran) (‘fire-worshipper’) – the word used to describe Zoroastrians. The Banians, however, were not Zoroastrians. It was possible they were identified as such in order to provide them with protected status under Islam.

We can best understand the history of the Banian community in the Gulf region and in Oman if we consider it within the context of three periods:

• 1. The pre-Portuguese era. Studies on this period are mainly based on historical or archaeological sources. They are usually sketchy because, as the Banians’ primary interest was in business and trade between the Indian Ocean ports (they would often return back to India after making their fortunes), they appear to have left few buildings or physical traces of their presence in other lands.

• 2. The Portuguese era during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. The role of the Banian in the events of this period can be studied through documents and other archival materials which are still a significant source of information on the European presence in the region at the dawn of the sixteenth century.