Benares State

Benares State
1911–1949
Benares State in yellow in the Imperial Gazetteer of India; Benares city and Sarnath are in British India, which is shown in pink.
Capital	Ramnagar, Benares
Common languages	Bhojpuri, Hindi-Urdu, English
Religion	Hinduism (official), Islam, Jainism, Buddhism, Christianity
Raja
• 1740 – 1770 (first)	Balwant Singh
• 1939 – 1947 (last)	Vibhuti Narayan Singh
Historical era	1730–1949
• Established	1730
• Accession to the Union of India	1949
Preceded by Oudh State
Today part of	Varanasi, Bhadohi, Chandauli, Mirzapur, Jaunpur, Ghazipur, Ballia, Sonbhadra, Azamgarh in Uttar Pradesh and Kaimur, Rohtas, Buxar, Bhojpur in Bihar, India

Raja Chait Singh of Benares State

The Maharaja's Fort and palace in Ramnagar

Maharaja of Benares with his courtiers in the 1870s

Benares State, earlier Benares Estate, was an estate, or hereditary jagir, comprising the family domains of the Maharaja of Benares successively under the Nawabs of Oudh, East India Company rule, and the British Raj. From 1911 to 1948, it was recognized as a princely state.

The estate was founded by the zamindar, Balwant Singh, who assumed the title of "Raja of Benares" in the mid 18th century, taking advantage of the Mughal Empire's disintegration. His descendants had zamindari privileges in an area around Benares city, but not in the city, which the East India Company had annexed under the Treaty of Faizabad in the later 1760s. Benares became a princely state of British Raj in 1911. On 15 October 1949, the State of Benares was merged with Uttar Pradesh.