Castes and Tribes of Southern India/Bhātia

by Edgar Thurston

Bhātia.—— Nearly four hundred members of this caste were returned at the Madras census, 1901. It is recorded in the Bombay Gazetteer, that " the Bhātias claim to be Bhāti Rājputs of the Yādav stock. As a class they are keen, vigorous, enterprising, thrifty, subtle and unscrupulous. Some of the richest men in Bombay started life without a penny. A large number of Bhātias are merchant traders and brokers, and within the last fifty years they have become a very wealthy and important class." Like the Nāttukōttai Chettis of Southern India, the Bhātias undertake sea voyages to distant countries, and they are to be found eastward as far as China.