Within Santal religious life, the fertility of the soil and the success of crops are sustained through a web of ritual relationships with deities, spirits, and ancestors. Before the agricultural season begins, the village priest or household head performs field‑side ceremonies at the boundaries of the land, offering rice, flowers, and rice beer to local spirits and ancestors who are believed to govern the productivity of the soil. At the sacred grove, Jaher Era and other deities are propitiated so that the village and its fields remain under benevolent protection. These acts of reverence frame cultivation not merely as labor on the land, but as participation in a sacred covenant with the unseen beings who animate it.

The agricultural year is ritually opened with festivals that align human activity with the rhythms of nature. The Baha festival, celebrated in spring before sowing, is especially significant: prayers and offerings are made to Marang Buru and other bongas for the blessing of the coming crops, sometimes accompanied by ceremonial ploughing. Such rites symbolically “unlock” the season, asking that fields, animals, and human communities all share in renewed fertility. Through these observances, the first touch of the plough and the first stirring of seeds are enveloped in a climate of sacred attention.

As the crops grow and the year unfolds, Santals continue to nurture this relationship through ongoing offerings and seasonal festivals. Small, informal acts of propitiation at field edges—using rice beer, cooked rice, or other simple gifts—seek to keep plant diseases, storms, and harmful spirits at bay. During periods of drought or irregular rain, special rain ceremonies are held at sacred groves or other charged sites, where spirits associated with clouds and water are invoked so that soil moisture and crop health may be preserved. These rites express a deep awareness that favorable weather is not taken for granted but is continually negotiated through respectful engagement with the spirit world.

Harvest time brings its own cluster of rituals that both give thanks and renew the cycle of fertility. The Sohrai festival celebrates the successful harvest and honors cattle, whose labor and manure are integral to agricultural life, while prayers are offered for the continued fecundity of the land. First‑fruits offerings of the new grain to bongas and ancestors ritually acknowledge that the yield belongs, in the first instance, to the powers that made it possible. Ancestor worship, practiced at key moments such as sowing and harvest, reinforces the sense that fields are not merely economic assets but inheritances watched over by hapramko bongas, whose favor or displeasure is reflected in the condition of the soil and the abundance of the crops.