BAN. 
BANI ANS', a religious (eft in the empire of the Mo¬ 
gul, tv ho believe a metempfychofis ; and therefore eat no 
living creature, nor kill even noxious animals, but endea¬ 
vour to releafe them when in the hands of others. The 
name Banian is ufed with fome diverfity, which has oc- 
calioned much confufion, and many midakes. Sometimes 
it is taken in a lefs proper fenfe, and extended to all the 
idolators of India, as contradiftinguilhed from the Maho¬ 
metans : in which fenfe Banians include tire Bramin and 
other calls, Banians, in a more proper fenfe, is retrained 
to a peculiar call, or tribe, of Indians, whole office or pro- 
fetlion is trade and merchandize: in which fenfe, Banians 
Bands contradiflinguiflied from Bramins, Cattery, and Wyj'e, 
the three other calls into which the Indians are divided. 
See India. The four carts are abfoiutelv feparate as to 
occupation, relation, marriage, &c. though all of the fame 
religion; which is more properly denominated the religion 
of the Bramins, who make the ecclefialtical tribe, than of 
the Banians, who make the mercantile. The proper Ba¬ 
nians are called, in the Shajler , or book of their law, by 
the name of Skvddery ; under which are comprehended all 
who live after the manner of merchants, or that deal and 
tran fail for others, as brokers; exclufive of the mechanics, 
or artificers, who make another caff, called Wyfe. Thefe 
Banians have no peculiar feft or religion, unlefs it be, that 
two of the eight general precepts given by their legillator 
JB remaw to the Indian nation, are, on account of the pro- 
feffion of the Banians, fuppofed more immediately to re¬ 
late to them, viz. thofe which enjoin veracity in their 
words and dealings, and avoiding all practices of circum¬ 
vention in buying and felling. Some of the Banians, quit¬ 
ting their poffeffion, and retiring from the world, com¬ 
mence religious, a flu me a peculiar habit, and devote them- 
felves more immediately to God, under the denomination 
of Vertca. Thefe, though they do not hereby change their 
call, are commonly reckoned Bramins of a more devout 
kind. The name Banian imports in the Bramin language, 
a people innocent and barmlefs ; void of guile ; fo gentle, 
that they cannot endure to fee either a fly or a worm in¬ 
jured ; and who, when flruck, will patiently bear it, with¬ 
out re lifting or returning the blow. Their mien and ap¬ 
pearance is deferibed by Lord, in terms a little precife, but 
very fignificant: “ A people prefented themfelves to my 
eyes clothed in linen garments, fomewhat low defeending, 
of a geftnre and garb, as I may fay, maidenly, and well 
nigh effeminate, of a countenance flty and fomewhat ef- 
tranged.” Gemelli Careri divides the Banians into twenty- 
two tribes, all diltinft, and not allowed to marry with each 
other. Lord affures 11s they are divided into eighty-two 
calls or tribes, correfpondent to the caffs or divilions of 
the Bramins or priefls, under whofe difeipline they are, as 
to religious matters; though the generality of the Banians 
choofe to be under the direftionof the two Bramin tribes, 
the Vifalnagranaugers and Vulnagranaugers. 
The Banians are the great faftors, by whom the trade 
of India is principally managed : in this refpeft: they may 
be compared to the Jews and Armenians, and not behind 
either, in point of fkill and experience, in whatever relates 
to commerce. Nothing is bought but by their mediation. 
They feem to claim a kind of jus divinum to the adminif- 
tration of the traffic or the nation, grounded on the facred 
books, as the Bramins do to that of religion. They are 
difperfed, for this purpofe, through all parts of Afia, and 
abound in Perlia, particularly at Ifp.ahan and Gombroon, 
where many of them are extremely rich, yet not above 
afting as brokers, where a penny is to be got. The chief 
agents of the Engliflr, Dutch, and French, Eafl-India 
companies, are of this nation : they are faithful, and are 
generally truffed with the cafh of thofe companies in their 
keeping. They aft alfo as bankers, and can give bills of 
exchange for mod cities in the Eafl Indies. Their form 
of contraft in buying and felling is remarkable; being done 
without words, in the profoundefl filence, only by touch¬ 
ing each other’s fingers : the buyer, loofening his pamerin 
or girdle, fpreads it on his knee, and both he and the fel- 
Voh- II. No. 95. 
BAN 66) 
ler having their hands underneath, by the inlercourfe of 
the fingers, mark the price of pounds, (hillings, &c. de¬ 
manded, offered, and at length agreed on. When the 
feller takes the buyer’s whole hand, it denotes a thoufand ; 
and, as many times as he fqueezes it, as many thoufand 
pagodas, or roupees, according to the fpecies in queftion, 
are demanded : wheri lie only takes the fivp fingers, it de¬ 
notes five hundred ; and when only One, one hundred; 
taking only half a finger, to the fecond joint, denotes fifty ; 
the.fmall end of the finger, to the firfl joint, (lands for ten. 
BAN'JAR MAS'SIM, a kingdom in the if]and of Bor¬ 
neo, the principal town.of which is called Negara. The 
country produces great quantities of pepper; there are alfo 
mines of gold, iron, copper, and tin. It is faid the king 
can raife above feven thoufand armed men. 
B A'NI AS, a town of Syria, fifty miles S. W. Damafcus. 
BANTER (Anthony), licentiate in laws, member of 
the academy of inferiptions and belles lettres, and ecclefi- 
altlc of the diocefe of Clermont in Auvergne ; died in No¬ 
vember 1741, aged fixty-nine. He is principally celebrat¬ 
ed for his tranflation of the Metamorphofes of Ovid, with 
hiftorical remarks and explanations ; publilhed in 1732, at 
Amflerdam, in folio, with copper-plates, by Picart; re¬ 
printed at Paris 1738, 2 vols. 4to. and for his Mythology, 
or fables of the ancients explained by hiflory ; a work full 
of the mofl important information, was t ran (la ted into Eng- 
lifli, and printed at London in 17.41, 4 vols. 8vo. 
To BA'NISH, v. a. [ banir , Fr. banio, low Lat. proba¬ 
bly from ban. Tent, an outlawry, or proferiptiorp ] T® 
condemn to leave his own country : 
Oh, fare th.ee well ! 
Thofe evils thou repeat’d upon thyfelf 
Have banijh'd me from Scotland. Shakefpeare. 
To drive away.—It is for wicked men only to dread God, 
and to endeavour to banifli the thoughts of him out of their 
minds. Tillotfon. 
Succefslefs all her foft careffes prove, 
To banifn from his bread his country’s love. Pope. 
BA'NISHER,y. He that forces another from his own 
country. 
B A'NISHMENT, f. [_baniffement, Fr.] The aft of ba- 
nifhing another; as, he fecured himfelf by the banijhmcnt 
of his enemies. The (late of being banifhed ; exile : 
Now go we in content 
To liberty, and not to banifhment. Shakefpeare. 
By the common law, every Englifhman may claim aright 
to abide in his own country fo long as he pleafes, and not 
to be banifhed or driven from it but by the fentence of the 
law. The king, by his royal prerogative, may iffue out his 
writ ne exeat regnurn, and prohibit any of his fubjefts from 
going into foreign parts without licence; but no power 
lefs than the authority of parliament can fend any fubjeft 
out of the land againd his will, no not even a criminal ; 
for, wherever banifhment or tranfportation is inflifted, it 
is either by the choice of the criminal hinvfelf, to efcape 
a capital punifhment, or by the exprefs direftion of an aft 
of parliament. By the great charter, c. 29. it is declared, 
that no freeman (hall be banifhed, unlefs by the judgment 
of his peers, or by (he law of the land. And by the habeas 
corpus aft, 31 Car. II. c. 2. no fubjeft of this realm, who is 
an inhabitant of England, Wales, or Berwick, (hall be 
fent prifoncr into Scotland, Ireland, Jerfey, Guernfey, or 
place beyond the Teas, where they cannot have the benefit 
and proteftion of the common law, but all fuch imorifon- 
ment (ball be illegal. And the law in this refpeft is fb 
liberally conftrued for the benefit of the fubjeft, that, 
though within the realm, the king may command the at¬ 
tendance and fervice of all his liegemen, yet he cannot 
fend any man out of the realm, even upon the public fer¬ 
vice, except failors and foldiers, the nature of whofe em¬ 
ployment necellarily implies an exception : he cannot even 
confirifute a man lord deputy, or lieutenant of Ireland, a- 
gainft his will, nor make him a foreign ambaffador; for 
8 H this 
