With the spread of scientific education, the religious profession has lost its past glory and the respect it enjoyed in the society. People express disbelief in religious superstitions and many rituals have either been circumvented by short cuts or have been totally abandoned.

However, the priest still has his sway over a large number of village folk and exerts considerable influence on some domestic functions. Consequently, they still are found in the district though not in a large number. While there were 1,690 priests in 1951, the 1961 census enumerated 2,073 persons engaged in this profession. Of them, 256 were ordained. The number of women priests was 144.

The priesthood is one of the traditional features that Nasik city has preserved from time immemorial. The religious importance of the city and the orthodox attitude of the Hindus helped to nourish the occupation of the priests. The Brahmans who f0How this occupation are called pandyas. Most of them live in Panchavati and have their own houses. They are family priests, keepers of pilgrims' lodging houses, temples, ministers, pilgrims' guides and instructors. An interesting thing about them is that they have main­tained an up-to-date record (Chopadi or khatavani) of the pilgrims who had visited the city during the last hundreds of years. They have distributed amongst themselves the areas so as to act as family priests of those who come from that particular area. A priest can tell his pilgrim the name of his forefather and the year in which he had visited the city. There was a time when these priests wholly lived on the money they received by their religious discourses. 'Now-a-days however the occupation is gradually losing its importance. Most of the priests have now taken to government and other services.