The Narayan dynasty was the ruling family of Benares belonging to the Bhumihars of Gautama gotra. According to tradition, it traces its ancestry to an ascetic Brahmin named Krishna Mishra, a descendant of the sage Gautama. Raja Mansaram Singh of Narayan Dynasty had again acquired the kingdom of his ancestors. After seceding from Awadh, Benares emerged as a kingdom of its own, ruled by Maharaja Balwant Singh in the year 1740 during the 18th century. Since then, the family which ruled Benaras belonged to the Bhumihar community. In 1911, Benares became a full-fledged princely state of British India and the Narayan dynasty ruled it as British vassals until they acceded to independent India in 1947.