The Kunbis and other cultivating classes eat three times a day, at about eight in the morning, at mid-day and after dark. The morning meal is commonly eaten in the field and the other two at home. At mid-day the cultivator comes home from home form work, bathes and take his meal, and then, after a rest, at about ten o'clock he goes again to the field, if the crops are on the ground, and sleeps on the mala or small elevated platform erected in the field to watch and protect the grain from birds and wild animals. Jowar is the staple food of this class, and is eaten both raw and cooked. The tender pods of jowar may be gnawed at in raw condition. It is a common custom among well-to-do tenants and proprietors to invite their friends to a picnic in the fields when the crop is ripe to eat hurda or thepods of jowar roasted in hot ashes. For cooking purposes jowar is ground in an ordinary handmill and then passed through a sieve, which separates the finer from the coarser particles. The finer flour is made into dough with hot water and baked into thick bhakaris or flat unleavened cakes, weighing more than half a pound each; while the coarse flour is boiled in water like rice. The boiled pulse of arhar (Cajanus indicus) is commonly eaten with jowar, and the bhakaris are dipped in oil or ghee. The sameness of this diet is varied by a number of green vegetables which are usually boiled and then mixed into a salad with groundnut or sesamum oil and flavoured with salt and powdered chillis. Another way of cooking jowar is to boil its granules with butter-milk inot a substance resembling porridge; it is seasoned with pepper and vegetable oils. Onion and garlic, are either chopped and boiled, or eaten raw; catni made of crushed onion, salt and chilli may be substituted. To improve the flavour of some dishes, especially those made of pulses and vegetables they are processed with phodani, a peculiar method of spicing.

Except Brahmans, Jains and Lingayats who are enjoined not to partake of any animal food other caste Hindus may occasionally take animal food except beef.

The dietary of the well-to-do urbanites and higher caste Hindus is much more elaborate and systematised. Besides the usual cereals, pulses, vegetables and oils, a vegetarian includes in his diet dairy products like milk, butter, curds, buttermilk, ghee (clarified butter) and vanaspati (hydrogenated oils) on a liberal scale. The morning tea with a light breakfast is followed by two meals, one between nine and eleven in the morning and the other between seven and nine in the evening.

Generally a Maratha Brahman eats, wearing only a clean dhoti. The rule among them is that a special cloth of silk or wool or such 'pure' material should be worn for the purpose of taking food, but this is now going out of fashion, except at festivals and caste feasts. But in orthodox families food is still eaten in the cauka or cooking place, spread with cowdung and marked in squares with lines of white powder (Rangoli). A separate little square is marked for each person. Inside this is placed a little pal or wooden seat about 3 inches high, to sit upon. Rice, wheat, jowar, pulse, and vegetables are generally the materials of both meals, wheat and jowar being preferred at the second or evening meal. Curds are always eaten. Besan or gram-flour fried with onion. Chillies, cloves and other spices, and oil is a favourite dish. With rice is taken some ghee, varan or liquid split pulse, and a curry or amti of split pulse boiled with onions, spices, salt and tamarind. Curds, milk and buttermilk (tak) are indispensable with higher castes, particularly Brahmans. Savouries like catnis, rayatas, kosimbirs, lonace, papad and sandage are the usual adjuncts to a meal among the well-to-do.

The dinner is served in three courses, the first of boiled rice and pulse with a spoonful or two of ghee. The second of poli or capati, sugar and ghee with salads. The vegetables are served with each course. The plate is not changed during the dinner. In each course the chief dish is served in the centre of the plate, the vegetables and curries (in cups) are arranged on the right, and on the left, the salads, a piece of lemon and some salt.

In the more advanced communities a table-cloth, white or coloured, is spread on the ground and the dishes are placed on it. The people sit round it on stools and take their food from dishes placed on ground. Some well-to-do families from the upper class have now-a-days taken to dining on tables.