Pindarin.

Etymology: In α. forms, probably ultimately < Marathi pẽḍhārī marauder < pẽḍhār band of marauders, depredation, perhaps influenced by Gujarati piṇḍārɔ . In β. forms < Hindi piṇḍāra mendicant, marauder (in this sense influenced by Marathi pẽḍhāra band of marauders < pẽḍhār) < Sanskrit piṇḍāra religious mendicant < piṇḍa lump of meal as alms.The phonology of the Marathi word, and the fact that its etymon is an abstract or collective noun, suggest a connection with Dravidian words applied to Vaishnava tribal priests and Saiva tribal mendicants, e.g. Telugu paṇḍāramu and Tamil paṇṭāram Pandaram n.; the latter is found as a term for the marauders in English earlier than Pindari:1778 R. Orme Hist. Mil. Trans. Brit. Nation II. 571 With 3000 mounted, and a greater number of foot plunderers, who are called Pandarums, and always troop with the horse.A less likely etymology would involve the Hindi (or Gujarati) word being altered in Marathi under the influence of pẽḍhā straw, fermented drink made from straw (favoured by the marauders). A suggestion that the word is derived < Pāndhār, the name of the region between Burhānpur and Handiya, is disproved by the facts that the place name lacks the medial cerebral consonant and that the Pindaris did not inhabit this region until the late 18th cent. An unassimilated word Pendhārī, given by N.E.D(1906) as sense 2, ‘the language spoken by Pindaris and their descendants’, refers to an Urdu dialect and is not directly connected:1901 Census India, Classified List of Lang. No. 81 Pendhārī or Kākari a jargon based on Dakhinī, which is used by Musalman Pendhārās and Kākars in Dharwar (Bombay).