Article Written By EIH Researcher And Writer
Aadrit Banerjee
Every year, in Baisakhi Purnima, certain households in Bengal worship Maa Gandeshwari. Believed to be an incarnation of Durga, the Goddess is said to have saved the Gandhabati from Gandhasura. She is the deity of fragrances, and her worshippers, for whom she till date remains the kuladevi, are the Gandhibaniks, the ancient merchants of perfumes.
The Gandhabaniks or the Gondhobeneys, are a Bengali Hindu trading caste, and as their caste nomenclature conveys they traded traditionally in perfumes, incense, and exotic spices. So much had they flourished in trade, and expanded their network, that historians trace the ‘scent’ of their connections with ancient Rome and other foreign lands, and find mentions of their products in the accounts of Hippocrates.
The Brahma Vaivarta Purana mentions that the Gandhabaniks were born out of the union between an Ambastha male and Rajput female. Another legend relates how the ascetic Shiva created the Gandhabaniks, during his betrothal to Durga, to fulfil the need for aromatics and perfumes. The four Gandhabanik groups: Desh, Shankha or Sangha, Abat or Aut and Santrish or Chhatrish respectively were born out of Shiva’s forehead, armpits, navel and feet. The origin of Gandhabaniks is sometimes also traced to Krishna: it is said that the offspring born out of Krishna and Kubja’s marriage (the hunchback of Mathura whom Krishna transformed into a beautiful maiden) was the father of the Gandhabaniks.
The Gandhabaniks, whom Chinese Traveller Fa Hien had referred to as the Hindu businessmen of India, trace their lineage to the famous seafaring merchant Chand Sadagar, the protagonist of the Manasamangal Kavya. The Kavya, which is believed to be the oldest Mangal Kavyas composed, narrates how Manasa established her worship in Bengal by converting the Shaivaite Chand into her devotee. The Banik Khanda of the Chandimangal, a subgenre of MangalKavyas, speaks of how Goddess Chandi rescues Dhanapati Sadagar by her grace. These stories suggest the conversion of the Gondhobeneys from Shaivites to Shakta sect, and how they gradually turned into the custodian of Gandheswari, a form of Shakti. Later, some of them also converted to Vaishnavism during the bhakti movement led by Chaitanya. It is chiefly from the nine gotras: Alimyan, Bharadwaj, Kashyap, Krishnatreya, Moudgalya, Nrisingha, Ram rishi, Sabarna and Sandilya that they trace their lineage.
Being traders, the Gandhabaniks lived along the urban centres of Bengal, specially concentrated along the length of the Hooghly river, while in eastern Bengal, now Bangladesh, they lived mostly in the Dhaka-Bikrampur region. However, after the Partition, the Gandhabaniks residing in these areas had migrated to West Bengal.
The story of the Gandhabaniks is one steeped in fragrances, and their history and ancient legacy remains today as a scented memory. Today, the community holds on to their traditions, and the nomenclature has for them become an intrinsic part of their identity; it smells of that bygone perfumed past.
References:
- “Gandhabanik”. Gandhabanik, org/. Accessed 12 Oct. 2022.
- Sen, Sukumar. Bangala Sahityer Itihas, Vol.I, (in Bengali), Ananda Publishers, 1991.
- The Eastern Anthropologist. Ethnographic and Folk Culture Society. 1963.
- Dasgupta, Tamal. “Bangalir Gandhabanik Jatir Prachin Itihas Anushondhaner Koyekti Shutro”. Matshonyay, 7 May 2020, home.blog/2020/05/07
