Mohandas Parekh

Mohandas Parekh was one of the richest merchants of 17th century Surat. He combined the functions of a sharaf, broker and merchant. Parekh acted as a broker to the Dutch East India Company (VOC), and they often sold selected goods, like spices and tin, from the cargoes brought up by them from Indonesia to Parekh. In 1650, parekh collaborated with another powerful merchant, Virji Vora, and bought up all the goods brought by the Dutch to Surat.

When Shivaji, an Indian warrior king, attacked Surat in 1664, after a demand for tribute was rejected, he plundered some two and a half millions of rupees, gold, silver, pearls, rubies, diamonds, and emeralds from the town’s richest merchants, but has spared the house Mohandas Parekh as he was reputed as a charitable man.