Judgement

S. K. DAS, J. : This is an appeal from the judgment and order of the High Court of Patna dated 9-10-1953 in Miscellaneous Judicial Case No. 181 of 1953 of that Court*. It relates to a temple commonly known as the Baidyanath temple situate in the town of Deoghar within the limits of Santhal Parganas in the State of Bihar.

* See AIR 1954 Pat 262, Bhabhapritananda Ojha v. Bihar State Board of Religious Trusts.

2. For the purposes of this appeal it will be necessary to refer to some earlier litigation about this temple. The history of this temple, it is not disputed, goes back to remote antiquity. According to Hindu tradition referred to in the Siva Purana and Padma Purana, extracts from which, with translations, are given by Dr. Rajendra Lal Mitra in his paper on the Temples of Deoghar (see Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, Part 1, 1883, quoted in the Bihar District Gazetteer relating to Santal Parganas, 1938 edition pp. 373-376), the origin of the temple is traced to the Treta Yuga, which was the second age of the world by Hindu mythology. Side by side with Hindu tradition, there is a Santal tradition of the origin of the temple given by Sir William Hunter (see the Ann