The Ahirs will eat the flesh of goats and chickens, and most of them
consume liquor freely. The Kaonra Ahirs of Mandla eat pork, and the
Rawats of Chhattisgarh are said not to object to field-mice and rats,
even when caught in the houses. The Kaonra Ahirs are also said not to
consider a woman impure during the period of menstruation. Nevertheless
the Ahirs enjoy a good social status, owing to their relations with
the sacred cow. As remarked by Eha: "His family having been connected
for many generations with the sacred animal he enjoys a certain
consciousness of moral respectability, like a man whose uncles are
deans or canons." [27] All castes will take water from the hands of
an Ahir, and in Chhattisgarh and the Uriya country the Rawats and
Gahras, as the Ahir caste is known respectively in these localities,
are the only caste from whom Brahmans and all other Hindus will take
water. On this account, and because of their comparative purity,
they are largely employed as personal servants. In Chhattisgarh the
ordinary Rawats will clean the cooking-vessels even of Muhammadans,
but the Thethwar or pure Rawats refuse this menial work. In Mandla,
when a man is to be brought back into caste after a serious offence,
such as getting vermin in a wound, he is made to stand in the middle
of a stream, while some elderly relative pours water over him. He
then addresses the members of the caste _panchayat_ or committee,
who are standing on the bank, saying to them, 'Will you leave me in
the mud or will you take me out?' Then they tell him to come out,
and he has to give a feast. At this a member of the Meliha sept first
eats food and puts some into the offender's mouth, thus taking the
latter's sin upon himself. The offender then addresses the _panchayat_
saying, 'Rajas of the Panch, eat.' Then the _panchayat_ and all the
caste take food with him and he is readmitted. In Nandgaon State the
head of the caste _panchayat_ is known as Thethwar, the title of the
highest subcaste, and is appointed by the Raja, to whom he makes a
present. In Jashpur, among the Mahakul Ahirs, when an offender is put
out of caste he has on readmission to make an offering of Rs. 1-4 to
Balaji, the tutelary deity of the State. These Mahakuls desire to be
considered superior to ordinary Ahirs, and their social rules are hence
very strict. A man is put out of caste if a dog, fowl or pig touches
his water or cooking-pots, or if he touches a fowl. In the latter
case he is obliged to make an offering of a fowl to the local god,
and eight days are allowed for procuring it. A man is also put out of
caste for beating his father. In Mandla, Ahirs commonly have the title
of Patel or headman of a village, probably because in former times,
when the country consisted almost entirely of forest and grass land,
they were accustomed to hold large areas on contract for grazing.