diff --git a/hadoop-mapreduce-project/CHANGES.txt b/hadoop-mapreduce-project/CHANGES.txt
index f5c5ecd26f..ca4bdbfe57 100644
--- a/hadoop-mapreduce-project/CHANGES.txt
+++ b/hadoop-mapreduce-project/CHANGES.txt
@@ -243,6 +243,9 @@ Release 2.0.5-beta - UNRELEASED
     MAPREDUCE-5222. Bring back some methods and constants in Jobclient for
     binary compatibility with mapred in 1.x. (Karthik Kambatla via vinodkv)
 
+    MAPREDUCE-5235. Bring back old fields and exceptions in Counters for
+    binary compatibility with mapred in 1.x. (Mayank Bansal via vinodkv)
+
   OPTIMIZATIONS
 
     MAPREDUCE-4974. Optimising the LineRecordReader initialize() method 
diff --git a/hadoop-mapreduce-project/hadoop-mapreduce-client/hadoop-mapreduce-client-core/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/mapred/Counters.java b/hadoop-mapreduce-project/hadoop-mapreduce-client/hadoop-mapreduce-client-core/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/mapred/Counters.java
index 7d648a4912..a35fdaf4c1 100644
--- a/hadoop-mapreduce-project/hadoop-mapreduce-client/hadoop-mapreduce-client-core/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/mapred/Counters.java
+++ b/hadoop-mapreduce-project/hadoop-mapreduce-client/hadoop-mapreduce-client-core/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/mapred/Counters.java
@@ -40,6 +40,7 @@
 import org.apache.hadoop.mapreduce.counters.FileSystemCounterGroup;
 import org.apache.hadoop.mapreduce.counters.FrameworkCounterGroup;
 import org.apache.hadoop.mapreduce.counters.GenericCounter;
+import org.apache.hadoop.mapreduce.counters.LimitExceededException;
 import org.apache.hadoop.mapreduce.counters.Limits;
 import org.apache.hadoop.mapreduce.lib.input.FileInputFormatCounter;
 import org.apache.hadoop.mapreduce.util.CountersStrings;
@@ -62,6 +63,7 @@ public class Counters
     extends AbstractCounters<Counters.Counter, Counters.Group> {
   
   public static int MAX_COUNTER_LIMIT = Limits.COUNTERS_MAX;
+  public static int MAX_GROUP_LIMIT = Limits.GROUPS_MAX;
   
   public Counters() {
     super(groupFactory);
@@ -595,4 +597,21 @@ public static Counters fromEscapedCompactString(String compactString)
       throws ParseException {
     return parseEscapedCompactString(compactString, new Counters());
   }
+
+  /**
+   * Counter exception thrown when the number of counters exceed the limit
+   */
+  public static class CountersExceededException extends RuntimeException {
+
+    private static final long serialVersionUID = 1L;
+
+    public CountersExceededException(String msg) {
+      super(msg);
+    }
+
+    // Only allows chaining of related exceptions
+    public CountersExceededException(CountersExceededException cause) {
+      super(cause);
+    }
+  }
 }
diff --git a/hadoop-mapreduce-project/hadoop-mapreduce-client/hadoop-mapreduce-client-core/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/mapreduce/counters/LimitExceededException.java b/hadoop-mapreduce-project/hadoop-mapreduce-client/hadoop-mapreduce-client-core/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/mapreduce/counters/LimitExceededException.java
index a72d283ae1..46dae700b4 100644
--- a/hadoop-mapreduce-project/hadoop-mapreduce-client/hadoop-mapreduce-client-core/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/mapreduce/counters/LimitExceededException.java
+++ b/hadoop-mapreduce-project/hadoop-mapreduce-client/hadoop-mapreduce-client-core/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/mapreduce/counters/LimitExceededException.java
@@ -19,9 +19,10 @@
 package org.apache.hadoop.mapreduce.counters;
 
 import org.apache.hadoop.classification.InterfaceAudience;
+import org.apache.hadoop.mapred.Counters.CountersExceededException;
 
 @InterfaceAudience.Private
-public class LimitExceededException extends RuntimeException {
+public class LimitExceededException extends CountersExceededException {
 
   private static final long serialVersionUID = 1L;
 
diff --git a/hadoop-mapreduce-project/hadoop-mapreduce-client/hadoop-mapreduce-client-core/src/test/java/org/apache/hadoop/mapred/TestCounters.java b/hadoop-mapreduce-project/hadoop-mapreduce-client/hadoop-mapreduce-client-core/src/test/java/org/apache/hadoop/mapred/TestCounters.java
index 772fa9ba52..7ab19c1aae 100644
--- a/hadoop-mapreduce-project/hadoop-mapreduce-client/hadoop-mapreduce-client-core/src/test/java/org/apache/hadoop/mapred/TestCounters.java
+++ b/hadoop-mapreduce-project/hadoop-mapreduce-client/hadoop-mapreduce-client-core/src/test/java/org/apache/hadoop/mapred/TestCounters.java
@@ -26,9 +26,12 @@
 import java.util.Iterator;
 import java.util.Random;
 
+import junit.framework.Assert;
+
 import org.apache.commons.logging.Log;
 import org.apache.commons.logging.LogFactory;
 import org.apache.hadoop.mapred.Counters.Counter;
+import org.apache.hadoop.mapred.Counters.CountersExceededException;
 import org.apache.hadoop.mapred.Counters.Group;
 import org.apache.hadoop.mapreduce.FileSystemCounter;
 import org.apache.hadoop.mapreduce.JobCounter;
@@ -43,6 +46,12 @@ enum myCounters {TEST1, TEST2};
   private static final long MAX_VALUE = 10;
   private static final Log LOG = LogFactory.getLog(TestCounters.class);
   
+  static final Enum<?> FRAMEWORK_COUNTER = TaskCounter.CPU_MILLISECONDS;
+  static final long FRAMEWORK_COUNTER_VALUE = 8;
+  static final String FS_SCHEME = "HDFS";
+  static final FileSystemCounter FS_COUNTER = FileSystemCounter.BYTES_READ;
+  static final long FS_COUNTER_VALUE = 10;
+
   // Generates enum based counters
   private Counters getEnumCounters(Enum[] keys) {
     Counters counters = new Counters();
@@ -254,6 +263,60 @@ public void testMakeCompactString() {
     assertTrue("Bad compact string",
         cs.equals(GC1 + ',' + GC2) || cs.equals(GC2 + ',' + GC1));
   }
+  
+  @Test
+  public void testCounterLimits() {
+    testMaxCountersLimits(new Counters());
+    testMaxGroupsLimits(new Counters());
+  }
+
+  private void testMaxCountersLimits(final Counters counters) {
+    for (int i = 0; i < org.apache.hadoop.mapred.Counters.MAX_COUNTER_LIMIT; ++i) {
+      counters.findCounter("test", "test" + i);
+    }
+    setExpected(counters);
+    shouldThrow(CountersExceededException.class, new Runnable() {
+      public void run() {
+        counters.findCounter("test", "bad");
+      }
+    });
+    checkExpected(counters);
+  }
+
+  private void testMaxGroupsLimits(final Counters counters) {
+    for (int i = 0; i < org.apache.hadoop.mapred.Counters.MAX_GROUP_LIMIT; ++i) {
+      // assuming COUNTERS_MAX > GROUPS_MAX
+      counters.findCounter("test" + i, "test");
+    }
+    setExpected(counters);
+    shouldThrow(CountersExceededException.class, new Runnable() {
+      public void run() {
+        counters.findCounter("bad", "test");
+      }
+    });
+    checkExpected(counters);
+  }
+
+  private void setExpected(Counters counters) {
+    counters.findCounter(FRAMEWORK_COUNTER).setValue(FRAMEWORK_COUNTER_VALUE);
+    counters.findCounter(FS_SCHEME, FS_COUNTER).setValue(FS_COUNTER_VALUE);
+  }
+
+  private void checkExpected(Counters counters) {
+    assertEquals(FRAMEWORK_COUNTER_VALUE,
+      counters.findCounter(FRAMEWORK_COUNTER).getValue());
+    assertEquals(FS_COUNTER_VALUE, counters.findCounter(FS_SCHEME, FS_COUNTER)
+      .getValue());
+  }
+
+  private void shouldThrow(Class<? extends Exception> ecls, Runnable runnable) {
+    try {
+      runnable.run();
+    } catch (CountersExceededException e) {
+      return;
+    }
+    Assert.fail("Should've thrown " + ecls.getSimpleName());
+  }
 
   public static void main(String[] args) throws IOException {
     new TestCounters().testCounters();