Rafa'at wa Awal-i-Martabat Raja Sri Chait Singh Sahib Bahadur (d. 29 March 1810) commonly known as Chait Singh was a ruler of Benares State in northern India. Chait Singh was the eldest son of Raja Balwant Singh, and succeeded to the throne of Benares in 1770 after the death of his father. During the Eighteenth Century in northern India, the Mughal Empire was disintegrating, while the power of the East India Company was growing. Balwant Singh was a zamindar who took the title of raja, and rajas of Benares were still formally subject to the Nawab of Awadh (Oudh). The Nawab wished to hold total suzerainty over the zamindari. British authorities encouraged the Nawab to recognise Chait Singh as zamindar in 1773.