No doubt a few outcaste Rajputs may have joined the gangs and become their leaders.
"The Tribes and Castes of the Central Provinces of India Volume II"
R. V. Russell
Another pedigree makes the mother a Chamar and the father an outcaste Ahir.
"The Tribes and Castes of the Central Provinces of India Volume II"
R. V. Russell
It may be concluded, therefore, that the Dhanuks were a body of servile soldiery, recruited as was often the case from the subject Dravidian tribes; following the all-powerful tendency of Hindu society they became a caste, and owing to the comparatively respectable nature of their occupation obtained a rise in social position from the outcaste status of the subject Dravidians to the somewhat higher group of castes who were not unclean but from whom a Brahman would not accept water.
"The Tribes and Castes of the Central Provinces of India Volume II"
R. V. Russell