JUDGMENT

Walmsley, J. - The questions raised in this appeal are rather out of the ordinary. They relate to the right to succeed to a mohantship and to enjoy possession of the property belonging to the foundation.

2. The appellant is the plaintiff, Gobinda Ramanuj Das, commonly called Chhota Gobinda to distinguish him from another Gobinda, the Gobinda through whom the defendant claims.

3. In the District of Midnapur there is a muth called the Nayaganj Bora Asthal: it has subordinate Asthals, one of them at Shyamchandpur. The Thakurs installed in the muth are Sri Sri Gopinath Jiu and Raghunath Jiu and the sheba is preformed by members of the Ramanuj section. Nothing is known of the foundation of the muth. The earliest document on the record is one of 1841 by which one Nitai Singh gave various pieces of land to the then mohant Lachman for the purpose of carrying on the sheba of Sri Sri Gopinath Jiu, and of another Thakur Sri Sri Sitaram Jiu to be installed at Shyamchandpur.

4. Lachman was succeeded by Bharat Ramanuj Das, on the strength of a will or a deed of nomination made in 1878. There was, so far as we know, no dispute about Bharat's succession.

5. In 1908 Bharat was growing old, and