A few members of the caste are tenants and the bulk of them
farmservants and field-labourers. They also act as village
watchmen. The Dhanuks eat flesh and fish, but not fowls, beef or pork,
and they abstain from liquor. They will take food cooked without water
from a Brahman and a Lodhi, but not from a Rajput; but in Nimar the
status of the caste is distinctly lower, and they eat pig's flesh
and the leavings of Brahmans and Rajputs. The mixed nature of the
caste is shown by the fact that they will receive into the community
illegitimate children born of a Dhanuk father and a woman of a higher
caste such as Lodhi or Kurmi. They rank as already indicated just
above the impure castes.