Shrikrishna Travadi

Shrikrishna Travadi, a Nagar Brahmin, financed the English East India Company's trade with several lakh of rupees in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. His siding with the English in their struggle for power with native powers brought him great wealth.

Shrikrishna Travadi had inherited his banking business from his father, and as did his father so did he maintained cordial relations with the English. At the time the English and the native rulers were fighting fierce battles for political supremacy and his collaboration with the rising power of the English seemed as a good business strategy. Travadi had established network of branches across country and could easily facilitate EIC need for money. It seems that the branch managers were left with considerable freedom in business and did not always had to wait for their master's decisions.

Shrikrishna Travadi did not get only financial benefits from working with English; they offered him free transport facilities including soldiers, houses, palanquins, and camels to facilitate his journeys. His branches and employs were also guarded by the EIC’s soldiers.

As none of Travadi’s wives bore him a son, he adopted Jenath Dube, one of his relatives, as a son around 1800. Jenath had a grown up son, Hari Kisan, at the time of his adoption. Shrikrishna Travadi died in Surat on April 10, 1822. A few days before his death he had made a will appointing Mani Kisan Dube, son of Hari Kisan, as his heir and the representative of his firm.