In the Central Provinces Ahirs live in small forest villages with Gonds, and are sometimes scarcely considered as Hindus.

On this account they have a character for bucolic stupidity, as the proverb has it: 'When he is asleep he is an Ahir and when he is awake he is a fool.' But the Ahir caste generally has a good status on account of its connection with the sacred cow and also with the god Krishna, the divine cowherd.
The Marathas are the military caste of the Maratha country, formed into a caste from the cultivators, shepherds and herdsmen, who took service under Sivaji and subsequent Maratha leaders.

The higher clans may have been constituted from the aristocracy of the Deccan states, which was probably of Rajput descent.

They have now become a single caste, ranking somewhat higher than the Kunbis, from whom the bulk of them originated, on account of their former military and dominant position.

Their status was much the same as that of the Jats in the Punjab.