Analysis of information sources in references of the Wikipedia article "Bania (caste)" in English language version.
The Banias of northern India are really a cluster of several communities, of which the Agarwal Banias, Oswal Banias, and Porwal Banias are mentioned separately in connection with certain surnames
By the late eighteenth century, a large number of Bania and Parsi merchants had relocated to Bombay.
The Banias were again predominantly Hindu, but there were many Jain Banias and also Sikh and Muslim Banias in lesser numbers, and very few Buddhist Banias. Such was the picture in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
Most of the Hindu banias of Gujarat in the nineteenth century were followers of Vallabhcharya of the Vaishnava sect; the rest were Jains or Shravaks.
The term Bania is used generally for mercantile castes in North and Central India, and these castes are accorded Vaishya status in the varna system.
The subcaste the Gandhis belonged to was known as Modh Bania, the prefix apparently referring to the town of Modhera, in Southern Gujarat
One of them was Ghanshyamdas Birla, whose family symbolized more than any other Marwari, the transition of the community from trade to industry . Maheshwari Bania by caste, the Birlas originated from Pilani in the Shekhavati region of Rajasthan, which had been the original homeland of Marwari migrants.
The Sarabhais and the Lalbhais, the town's two most prominent entrepreneurial families, were Jain Banias prominent as shroffs.
I come from a Baniya family. Most of my relatives are businessmen. I know that it is not easy to do business in this country.
