1726.—"But Shah Sousa gave him (viz. Van der Broek, an envoy to Rajmahal in 1655) good words, and regaled him with Pinang (a great favour), and promised that he should be amply paid for everything."—Valentijn, v. 165.
PINDARRY, s. Hind. pinḍārī, pinḍārā, but of which the more original form appears to be Mahr. penḍhārī, a member of a band of plunderers called in that language penḍhār and penḍhārā. The etymology of the word is very obscure. We may discard as a curious coincidence only, the circumstance observed by Mr. H. T. Prinsep, in the work quoted below (i. 37, note), that "Pindara seems to have the same reference to Pandour that Kuzāk has to Cossack." Sir John Malcolm observes that the most popular etymology among the natives ascribes the name to the dissolute habits of the class, leading them to frequent the shops dealing in an intoxicating drink called pinda. (One of the senses of penḍhā, according to Molesworth's Mahr. Dict., is 'a drink for cattle and men, prepared from Holcus sorghum' (see [JOWAUR]) 'by steeping it and causing it to ferment.') Sir John adds: 'Kurreem Khan' (a famous Pindarry leader) 'told me he had never heard of any other reason for the name; and Major Henley had the etymology confirmed by the most intelligent of the Pindarries of whom he enquired' (Central India, 2nd ed. i. 433). Wilson again considers the most probable derivation to be from the Mahr. penḍhā, but in the sense of a 'bundle of rice-straw,' and hara, 'who takes,' because the name was originally applied to horsemen who hung on to an army, and were employed in collecting forage. We cannot think either of the etymologies very satisfactory. We venture another, as a plausible suggestion merely. Both pinḍ-paṛnā in Hindi, and pinḍās-basneṅ in Mahr. signify 'to follow'; the latter being defined 'to stick closely to; to follow to the death; used of the adherence of a disagreeable fellow.' Such phrases would aptly apply to these hangers-on of an army in the field, looking out for prey. [The question has been discussed by Mr. W. Irvine in an elaborate note published in the Indian Antiq. of 1900. To the above three suggestions he adds two made by other authorities: 4. that the term was taken from the Beder race; 5. from Pinḍārā, pinḍ, 'a lump of food,' ār, 'bringer,' a plunderer. As to the fourth suggestion, he remarks that there was a Beder race dwelling in Mysore, Belary and the Nizam's territories. But the objection to this etymology is that as far back as 1748 both words, Bedar and Pinḍārī, are used by the native historian, Rām Singh Munshī, side by side, but applied to different bodies of men. Mr. Irvine's suggestion is that the word Pinḍārī, or more strictly Panḍhār, comes from a place or region called Pāndhār or Pandhār. This place is referred to by native historians, and seems to have been situated between Burhānpur and Handiya on the Nerbudda. There is good evidence to prove that large numbers of Pindāris were settled in this part of the country. Mr. Irvine sums up by saying: "If it were not for a passage in Grant Duff (H. of the Mahrattas, Bombay reprint, 157), I should have been ready to maintain that I had proved my case. My argument requires two things to make it irrefutable: (1) a very early connection between Pandhār and the Pindhāris; (2) that the Pindhāris had no early home or settlement outside Pandhār. As to the first point, the recorded evidence seems to go no further back than 1794, when Sendhiah granted them lands in Nimār; whereas before that time the name had become fixed, and had even crept into Anglo-Indian vocabularies. As to the second point, Grant Duff says, and he if anybody must have known, that "there were a number of Pindhāris about the borders of Mahārāshtra and the Carnatic...." Unless these men emigrated from Khandesh about 1726 (that is a hundred years before 1826, the date of Grant Duff's book), their presence in the South with the same name tends to disprove any special connection between their name, Pindhāri, and a place, Pindhār, several hundred miles from their country. On the other hand, it is a very singular coincidence that men known as Pindhāris should have been newly settled about 1794 in a country which had been known as Pandhār at least ninety years before they thus occupied it. Such a mere fortuitous connection between Pandhār and the Pindhāris is so extraordinary that we may call it an impossibility. A fair inference is that the region Pandhār was the original home of the Pindhāris, that they took their name from it, and that grants of land between Burhānpur and Handiya were made to them in what had always been their home-country, namely Pandhār.">[
The Pinḍārīs seem to have grown up in the wars of the late Mahommedan dynasties in the Deccan, and in the latter part of the 17th century attached themselves to the Mahrattas in their revolt against Aurangzīb; the first mention which we have seen of the name occurs at this time. For some particulars regarding them we refer to the extract from Prinsep below. During and after the Mahratta wars of Lord Wellesley's time many of the Pinḍārī leaders obtained grants of land in Central India from Sindia and Holkar, and in the chaos which reigned at that time outside the British territory their raids in all directions, attended by the most savage atrocities, became more and more intolerable; these outrages extended from Bundelkhand on the N.E., Kadapa on the S., and Orissa on the S.E., to Guzerat on the W., and at last repeatedly violated British territory. In a raid made upon the coast extending from Masulipatam northward, the Pinḍārīs in ten days plundered 339 villages, burning many, killing and wounding 682 persons, torturing 3600, and carrying off or destroying property to the amount of £250,000. It was not, however, till 1817 that the Governor-General, the Marquis of Hastings, found himself armed with permission from home, and in a position to strike at them effectually, and with the most extensive strategic combinations ever brought into action in India. The Pinḍārīs were completely crushed, and those of the native princes who supported them compelled to submit, whilst the British power for the first time was rendered truly paramount throughout India.
1706-7.—"Zoolfecar Khan, after the rains pursued Dhunnah, who fled to the Beejapore country, and the Khan followed him to the banks of the Kistnah. The Pinderrehs took Velore, which however was soon retaken.... A great caravan, coming from Aurungabad, was totally plundered and everything carried off, by a body of Mharattas, at only 12 coss distance from the imperial camp."—Narrative of a Bondeela Officer, app. to Scott's Tr. of Firishta's H. of Deccan, ii. 122. [On this see Malcolm, Central India, 2nd ed. i. 426. Mr. Irvine in the paper quoted above shows that it is doubtful if the author really used the word. "By a strange coincidence the very copy used by J. Scott is now in the British Museum. On turning to the passage I find 'Peḍā Baḍar,' a well-known man of the period, and not Pindārā or Pinderreh at all.">[
1762.—"Siwaee Madhoo Rao ... began to collect troops, stores, and heavy artillery, so that he at length assembled near 100,000 horse, 60,000 Pindarehs, and 50,000 matchlock foot.... In reference to the Pindarehs, it is not unknown that they are a low tribe of robbers entertained by some of the princes of the Dakhan, to plunder and lay waste the territories of their enemies, and to serve for guides."—H. of Hydur Naik, by Meer Hassan Ali Khan, 149. [Mr. Irvine suspects that this may be based on a misreading as in the former quotation. The earliest undoubted mention of the name in native historians is by Rām Singh (1748). There is a doubtful reference in the Tārīkh-i-Muhammadī (1722-23)].
1784.—"Bindarras, who receive no pay, but give a certain monthly sum to the commander-in-chief for permission to maraud, or plunder, under sanction of his banners."—Indian Vocabulary, s.v.
1803.—"Depend upon it that no Pindarries or straggling horse will venture to your rear, so long as you can keep the enemy in check, and your detachment well in advance."—Wellington, ii. 219.
1823.—"On asking an intelligent old Pindarry, who came to me on the part of Kurreem Khan, the reason of this absence of high character, he gave me a short and shrewd answer: 'Our occupation' (said he) 'was incompatible with the fine virtues and qualities you state; and I suppose if any of our people ever had them, the first effect of such good feeling would be to make him leave our community.'"—Sir John Malcolm, Central India, i. 436.
[ " "He had ascended on horseback ... being mounted on a Pindaree pony, an animal accustomed to climbing."—Hoole, Personal Narrative, 292.]
1825.—"The name of Pindara is coeval with the earliest invasion of Hindoostan by the Mahrattas.... The designation was applied to a sort of sorry cavalry that accompanied the Pêshwa's armies in their expeditions, rendering them much the same service as the Cossacks perform for the armies of Russia.... The several leaders went over with their bands from one chief to another, as best suited their private interests, or those of their followers.... The rivers generally became fordable by the close of the [Dussera]. The horses then were shod, and a leader of tried courage and conduct having been chosen as Luhbureea, all that were inclined set forth on a foray or Luhbur, as it was called in the Pindaree nomenclature; all were mounted, though not equally well. Out of a thousand, the proportion of good cavalry might be 400: the favourite weapon was a bamboo spear ... but ... it was a rule that every 15th or 20th man of the fighting Pindarees should be armed with a matchlock. Of the remaining 600, 400 were usually common looteas (see [LOOTY]), indifferently mounted, and armed with every variety of weapon, and the rest, slaves, attendants, and camp-followers, mounted on [tattoos], or wild ponies, and keeping up with the luhbur in the best manner they could."—Prinsep, Hist. of Pol. and Mil. Transactions (1813-1823), i. 37, note.