Teli

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Teli (तेली) is a business caste among Hindus. Muslim converts are called Roshandaar (रोशनदार). Telis also call themselves Sahu Vaishyas. They have various surnames such as Sahu, Sav, Ghanchi, Gupta, Mandal, Saha, Gorai, Sadhu-Khan, Das, Teli, Lanjewar Asamwar, gandhi,prasad, modi etc. Telis are found throughout India.hindu teli is called teli shahu and Muslim teli is called teli malik;teli (telishahu, telimalik) belong to obc in whole India.

During the 3rd century a Saka lady of western India, who belonged to the ruling class of the age, wanted to make a permanent arrangement for supplying medicine & robes to Buddhist monks residing in the caves near Nasik. For this purpose she had to invest her capital in a solvent bank which would undertake to pay interest on the capital regularly "as long as the sun, the moon & the stars endured" so that the Buddhist monks may have no difficulty in purchasing robes & medicines every year. Among the banks selected by this lady for investing part of her capital, there was the bank of the guild of the Telis at Nasik. Messrs O'Malley & James observe "the great doorway at Buddhist monastery of Nalanda was setup by one Baladitya, chief among the wise men of Tailadhaka clan" Messrs O'Malley & James relied is historical, it will follow that the great Gupta dynasty was not only vaishya as is generally admitted but also Teli by cast. For according to the testimony of Yuan Chwang Baladitya associated with one of the monasteries and temples of Nalanda, was a king of Gupta line. And if he is the same as Baladitya, chief among the wise men of the Tailadhaka as Teli Caste, it will automatically follow that the caste of Baladitya and the Gupta family to which he belonged was also Teli as well as develop & spread the Buddhism all over the world. According to local tradition, the huge Buddha image which is known as the Telia Bhandar at Nalanda, was installed by a Teli, it used to be given a bath in oil when the Tibetian monk Dharmaswami visited Nalanda in 1235 A.D. Another Teli donar had installed a Buddha statue at Tetravan obviously the Teli community was rich on influential in Bihar during 800 to 1200 A.D. My research paper on said topic deals with the entire Teli Community of India which played a major role in the spread and development of Buddhism from time to time in various parts of the country.