Nairs were not permitted to perform rites in the temples of the "sanketams", the villages where the land was owned by a group of Nambudiri families, although they might have access to the outer courtyard area. Sometimes there were no Nairs at all in these villages. In villages where temples existed which were privately owned by a single Nambudiri family, there would be another temple, dedicated to Bhagavadi, that was used by the Nairs. It was in villages where the Nairs included the headman that there might be just a single temple, run by their village organisation.