SRIPATIPRASADJI BIHARILALJI Vs. LAXMIDAS DUNGERBHAI

JUDGEMENT

(1.) These are consolidated appeals from a decree of the High Court of Judicature at Bombay, dated December 22, 1922, and made in appeals Nos. 164 and 199 of 1919, varying a decree of the Court of the District Judge of Ahmedabad dated August 14, 1919.

(2.) The suit arises in this way, In 1804 a Hindu religious reformer, an ascetic coming from Northern India, named Smaminarayan, formed in the Bombay Presidency a new religious sect named after his own name, It consisted of men who. had renounced the world, secondly, of widows of men who had renounced the world, and thirdly of lay followers. He built two main temples one in the city of Ahmedabad and the other at Vadtal in the Kaira District, with the latter of which this suit is concerned. Amongst the buildings were a temple, a monastery, a theological and Sanskrit school and other accommodation for dwelling and residence.

(3.) The head of the establishment was the Acharya. The founder was worshipped as an incarnation of the god Krishna. It is undoubtedly true that according to the foundation the successors of the founder are similarly worshipped and are preceptors of the sect and heads of its spiritual and temporal affairs.