OMAN-INDIA TIES, ACROSS SEA AND SPACE

The Ratansi Purshottam Family60 Seth Ratansi bin Purshottam Al Baniani (1843–1906) first came from Kutch, Mandvi to Muscat around the age of sixteen in 1857 to work with his uncle at his ancestral firm, M/s. Natha Makan. He worked under the guidance of his uncle for 10 years before establishing his own business in the year 1867 in the name of Ratansi Purshottam. He started importing and exporting a wide range of goods including grains, textiles and dates. He also negotiated working agreements with merchants in foreign ports. In 1871, Ratansi acquired the ancestral firm from his uncle and merged it with his own business.

The genealogy of the Purecha family for almost ten generations in Muscat is: Makan-Natha-Thakarsey-Damodar-Purshottam-Ratansi-Lalji-RanchordasVimal-Dhruv Ratansi owned a business in Karachi while his brother had one in Bombay, and he partnered with William Hills Jr. of New York to export Omani fard dates to the USA61. He also established international banking and financial arrangements with the Mercantile Bank of India in Bombay and London.

Rantansi lived within the walled city of Muscat at Bait Ratansi, an officecum-residential complex close to the Palace. In the 1880s Ratansi began to acquire land along Muscat’s waterfront and eventually owned the waterfront property with the exception of the palace, customs house and British Political Agency. At the turn of the 20th century when a date packaging factory was started in Muttrah, another office-cum-residence building was constructed on Muttrah Bay next to the Customs Jetty. The introduction of steam ships hastened trade between Europe and The United States and Ratansi became the largest importer and exporter in Muscat in the late 1800s and one of the two leading arms dealers in the Gulf area. The business also held the customs franchise at that time.

As one of the four pillars of Baniani society, Ratansi was given the title of Badshah (as the king in a deck of cards) by His Majesty Sultan Sayyid Faisal bin Turki. For his business acumen and success, he was given the much coveted post of customs master in 1887. In his work on the Ratansi family, Calvin Allen 60 Details of the Ratansi and Khimji families are available in Allen (1981) and Goswami (2012). Details of the Toprani family are available from ‘Times of India’ May, 2009.

Most details are from personal interviews.

61 The technology of drying dates was an elaborate process as described by Goswami (2012).

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