Marsden Supposes That
There Has Been Confusion Between Brahmans And Banyans; And, As Guzerat Or
Lar Was The Country From Which The Latter Chiefly Came, There Is Much
Probability In This.
The high virtues ascribed to the Brahmans and Indian merchants were
perhaps in part matter of tradition, come down from the stories of
Palladius and the like; but the eulogy is so constant among mediaeval
travellers that it must have had a solid foundation.
In fact it would not
be difficult to trace a chain of similar testimony from ancient times down
to our own. Arrian says no Indian was ever accused of falsehood. Hiuen
Tsang ascribes to the people of India eminent uprightness, honesty, and
disinterestedness. Friar Jordanus (circa 1330) says the people of Lesser
India (Sind and Western India) were true in speech and eminent in justice;
and we may also refer to the high character given to the Hindus by Abul
Fazl. After 150 years of European trade indeed we find a sad
deterioration. Padre Vincenzo (1672) speaks of fraud as greatly prevalent
among the Hindu traders. It was then commonly said at Surat that it took
three Jews to make a Chinaman, and three Chinamen to make a Banyan. Yet
Pallas, in the last century, noticing the Banyan colony at Astrakhan, says
its members were notable for an upright dealing that made them greatly
preferable to Armenians. And that wise and admirable public servant, the
late Sir William Sleeman, in our own time, has said that he knew no class
of men in the world more strictly honourable than the mercantile classes
of India.
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