_Pindari, Pindara, Pendhari._ [436]--The well-known professional
class of freebooters, whose descendants now form a small cultivating
caste. In the Central Provinces they numbered about 150 persons
in 1911, while there are about 10,000 in India. They are mainly
Muhammadans but include some Hindus. The Pindaris of the Central
Provinces are for the most part the descendants of Gonds, Korkus
and Bhils whose children were carried off in the course of raids,
circumcised, and brought up to follow the profession of a Pindari. When
the bands were dispersed many of them returned to their native
villages and settled down. Malcolm considered that the name Pindari
was derived from _pinda_, an intoxicating drink, and was given to
them on account of their dissolute habits. He adds that Karim Khan,
a famous Pindari leader, had never heard of any other reason for
the name, and Major Henley had the etymology confirmed by the most
intelligent of the Pindaris of whom he inquired. [437] In support of
this may be adduced the name of Bhangi, given to the sweeper caste on
account of their drinking _bhang_ or hemp. Wilson again held the most
probable derivation to be from the Marathi _pendha_, in the sense of
a bundle of rice-straw, and _hara_ one who takes, because the name
was originally applied to horsemen who hung on to an army and were
employed in collecting forage. The fact that the existing Pindaris
are herdsmen and tenders of buffaloes and thus might well have been
employed for the collection of forage may be considered somewhat to
favour the above view; but the authors of _Hobson-Jobson_, after citing
these derivations, continue: "We cannot think any of the etymologies
very satisfactory. We venture another as a plausible suggestion
merely. Both _pind-parna_ in Hindi and _pindas-basnen_ in Marathi
signify 'to follow,' the latter being defined as 'to stick closely;
to follow to the death; used of the adherence of a disagreeable
fellow.' Such phrases could apply to these hangers-on of an army in
the field looking out for prey." Mr. W. Irvine [438] has suggested
that the word comes from a place or region called Pandhar, which
is referred to by native historians and seems to have been situated
between Burhanpur and Handia on the Nerbudda; and states that there is
good evidence to prove that a large number of Pindaris were settled
in this part of the country. Mr. D. Chisholm reports from Nimar that
"Pandhar or Pandhar is the name given to a stream which rises in the
Gularghat hills of the Asir range and flows after a very circuitous
course into the Masak river by Mandeva. The name signifies five,
as it is joined by four other small streams. The Asir hills were the
haunts of the Pindaris, and the country about these, especially by
the banks of the Pandhar, is very wild; but it is not commonly known
that the Pindaris derived their name from this stream." And as the
Pindaris are first heard of as hangers-on of the Maratha armies in
the Deccan prior to A.D. 1700, it seems unlikely also that their
name can be taken from a place in the Nimar District, where it is
not recorded that they were settled before 1794. Nor does the Pandhar
itself seem sufficiently important to have given a name to the whole
body of freebooters. Malcolm's or Wilson's derivations are perhaps on
the whole the most probable. Prinsep writes: "Pindara seems to have
the same reference to Pandour that Kuzak has to Cossack. The latter
word is of Turkish origin but is commonly used to express a mounted
robber in Hindustan." Though the Pandours were the predatory light
cavalry of the Austrian army, and had considerable resemblance to
the Pindaris, it does not seem possible to suppose that there is any
connection between the two words. The Pendra zamindari in Bilaspur is
named after the Pindaris, the dense forests of the Rewah plateau which
includes Pendra having been one of their favourite asylums of refuge.