Jajman

Common form of the Sanskrit word
yajamana, “patron of the sacrifice.”
From the time of the earliest Vedic sacrifices, there was a sharp distinction
between the people who performed the
sacrifice (basically hired technicians)
and the people who actually paid the
money to sponsor it and were considered the rite’s true beneficiaries. In contemporary times, jajman is the term
used by pandas, the priests at pilgrimage places (tirtha), to refer to their pilgrim clients, with whom they have a
hereditary relationship. This usage
admits the reality that the pilgrims are
their patrons, since the priests’ livelihood comes from serving them, but the
term also carries associations of mutual
obligation. Pandas are entitled to fees
from their pilgrim clients but must also
render services to them, while pilgrims
are bound to uphold this hereditary
relationship but can depend on their
pandas for help.