When the non-Aryan tribes retained possession of the land, there is every reason to suppose that they also were admitted into Hinduism, and either constituted a fresh caste with the cultivating status, or were absorbed into an existing one with a change of name.

Individual ownership of land was probably unknown.

The _patel_ or village headman, on whom proprietary right was conferred by the British Government, certainly did not possess it previously.

He was simply the spokesman and representative of the village community in its dealings with the central or ruling authority.

But it seems scarcely likely either that the village community considered itself to own the land.