JUDGMENT

1. These two appeals have arisen out of two suits which were instituted by the respective plaintiffs for recovery of possession of properties which, even apart from the entity which they collectively form under a recent enactment, have for a long series of years been popularly known as constituting the Bijni Raj. The properties, with the exception of a few solitary items which are comparatively recent acquisitions, lie in the Province of Assam and are extensive and valuable, covering an area of 1200 sq. miles and yielding a gross annual income of over 5 lacs of rupees. The Rajas of Bijni belong to a very ancient house which may be traced as far back as the fifteenth or sixteenth century. The Maharaja of Cooch Bihar in Bengal still represents the main line of this dynasty, and the Rajas of Darrang, Sidli and Bijni also belong to the same stock. History traces the House to an aboriginal tribe of Kochos or Rajbansis who rose to power and who on the dismemberment of the ancient Hindu kingdom of Kamrup with its capital at Gauhati by repeated Mahomedan invasions, founded a kingdom which was at one time co-extensive with it. (See Hunter's Imperial Gazetter of India, Vol. 1, p. 240