Thus the soil of the village is venerated as a goddess, and it seems doubtful whether the village community considered itself the owner.

In the Maratha Districts, Hanuman or Mahabir, the monkey god, is the tutelary deity of the village.

His position seems to rest on the belief of the villagers that the monkeys were the lords and owners of the soil before their own arrival.

For the worship of these and the other village gods there is usually a village priest, known as Bhumka, Bhumia, Baiga or Jhankar, who is taken from the non-Aryan tribes.

The reason for his appointment seems to be that the Hindus still look on themselves to some extent as strangers and interlopers in relation to the gods of the earth and the village, and consider it necessary to approach these through the medium of one of their predecessors.