[4] The thirteenth century Hindu text Bṛhaddharma Puraṇa placed Suvarnabaniks in middle-ranking Shudras but Vallalcharita degraded them from that position.
[5][6] The social order described in the Brihaddharma Purana consists of bipolarity of brahmins and shudras without intermediate varnas of Kshatriya and Vaishya.
Historian Furui concludes that the imposition of inferior ritual ranks on merchant groups were attempts by brahmins to restrain them.
According to historian Nihar Ranjan Ray, there is possibly some truth to the belief that these trading castes were degraded by King Vallalasena.
Suvarnabaniks displeased him by refusing to lend him money when it was wanted, and that he raised the four other castes to the status of sat Sudras because they happened to have pleased him, may have been true.
In Sena's canonical establishment of caste precedence in Bengal, he downgraded the Vaishya Subarnabanik bankers (gold traders) to Sudra, as they refused to advance him the amount of money he wanted.