What was the name of the 'chiefs of mahajans' (merchant community) who lived in 'western India'?

Sheth

The correct answer is Option 1 - Sheth

As in the case of the question of landownership, Bernier was drawing an oversimplified picture. There were all kinds of towns: manufacturing towns, trading towns, port-towns, sacred centres, pilgrimage towns, etc. Their existence is an index of the prosperity of merchant communities and professional classes. Merchants often had strong community or kin ties, and were organised into their own caste-cumoccupational bodies. In western India these groups were called mahajans, and their chief, the 'SHETH'. In urban centres such as Ahmedabad the mahajans were collectively represented by the chief of the merchant community who was called the nagarsheth.