Narayan dynasty

The Narayan dynasty was the ruling Bhumihar family of Benares. After the disintegration of the Mughal Empire in the 18th century, the family ruled Benares as tributories of the Nawab of Awadh and the East India Company. In 1910, Benares became a full-fledged princely state of British India, and the Narayan dynasty ruled it as British vassals until the independence of India in 1947.

Even today the Kashi Naresh, the titular ruler of the dynasty, is deeply revered by the people of Benares. He is the religious head and the people of Benares consider him the incarnation of Lord Shiva. He is also the chief cultural patron and an essential part of all religious celebrations.

The family tradition goes back to the year 1000, when a Brahmin ascetic of Utaria, a village near Benares, foretold the succession of his descendants to the dominions then governed by a Hindu raja.

With the decline of Mughal Empire, in the area south of Avadh, in the fertile riverain rice growing areas of Benares, Gorakhpur, Deoria, Ghazipur, Ballia and Bihar and on the fringes of Bengal, it was the 'military' who strengthened their sway. What brought success to these Hindu princelings was the strong clan organisation on which they rested. There were perhaps as many as 100,000 Bhumihar clansmen backing the Benares rajas in what later became the districts of Benares, Gorakhpur and Azamgarh. This proved a decisive advantage when the dynasty faced its rival and nominal suzerain, the Nawab of Awadh, in the 1750s and the 1760s. Their support gave the Benares ruler the capacity to mount an exhausting guerrilla war against the Avadh camp using his Bhumihar clan levies which forced the Nawab to withdraw his main force.

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