The Bettiah Christians (Hindi: बेतिया मसीही, Urdu: بیتیاہ مسیحی, transliteration: Béttiah Masīhī), also known as Betiawi Christians, are the northern Indian subcontinent's oldest Christian community, which emerged in the 18th century. Upper-caste Hindus and Muslims who converted to Christianity in the 18th and 19th centuries constitute the majority of the Indo-Aryan ethnoreligious community of Bettiah Christians. The origins of the Bettiah Christian community lie in Champaran, in which the king of the Bettiah Raj in India, Maharaja Dhurup Singh, invited Roman Catholic missionaries of the Order of Friars Minor Capuchin to establish the Bettiah Christian Mission there.