JUDGMENT

Ameer Ali, J.

The dispute in this case relates to the shebaitship of a Hindu temple belonging to the Ballavacharya Gossains situated at a place called Jatipura in the Muttra district of the United Provinces of India.

2. The Ballavacharya cult, in reality an offshoot of Vaishnavism, was founded in the 16th century of the Christian Era by one Ballavacharya, who is usually designated among his followers and disciples as Maha Pirbhuji. He and his descendants, who constitute the Ballavacharya Gossain Kul, are held in great veneration by the members of the sect and regarded as the incarnation of the famous and favourite Hindu deity Krishna, whom in common with other Vaishnavs (Vishnuvites) they worship. The cult established by Ballavacharya differed in several particulars from the practices in vogue among other votaries of Krishna, the principal point of difference consisting in the fact that he repudiated the practice of celibacy and asceticism practiced by the other Gossains.

3. The Ballavacharya Gossains, in other works, the descendants of Ballav, possess several principal temples, each of which in presided over by a member of his Kul or family, who is styled a Tikait.

4. The defe