1. This is a suit for the settlement of a scheme for the management of the temple of Sri Devarajaswami at Conjeevaram and the shrines attached to it. The temple is one of the most ancient and famous in Southern India. It has unfortunately been also the source of constant and bitter litigation for a very long period of time, not less than a century. The suit has been instituted by certain members of a group of families known as the Thathachars who are all said to be the descendants of one Koti Kanyakadanam Thatha Desikar, a famous scholar who is reputed to have been the. priest of Sri Krishna Devaraya, the Rajah of the Carnatic. The original defendants were also members of the same family. Defendants Nos. 1 to 4 are admittedly trustees of the temple and the 19th defendant also claims to have been validly appointed as trustee by a mediator who is alleged to have possessed the power to appoint him. According to the rules of the institution prevailing at the time of the suit, the temple was to be administered by five trustees. These trustees admittedly were to be ordinarily elected by members of the families of the Thathachars, the mediator, it is stated, having the right to fi