The Pindarî are groups of riders mercenaries accompanying the armies Marathe S in central India during the 18th century, when the Empire moghol was in full decomposition. Pindarî were vaguely organized in bands directed by car-proclaimed chiefs, each band being usually attached to the one of the marathes big bosses. Pindarî had as a characteristic not to receive any wages, but had the privilege to plunder the crossed zones. The majority of them seem to have been Musulman S and of Afghan origin .

When the regular forces marathes are dismantled during the countryside carried out by sir Arthur Wellesley and Lord Gerald Lake in 1802 - 1804, Pindarî settle in the Mâlvâ, under the tacit protection of Holkar and the Sindhia which concede to them ground in the valley of the Narmadâ. They then take the practice to gather each year at the beginning of November and to make plundering campaigns, as with the Goujerat in 1808 - 1809, in the Bundelkhand in 1812 and on the territory of the Nîzam of Hyderâbâd in 1815. In one of these raids, on the coast of Masulipattanam, they plunder 339 villages, killing or wounding 682 people, by torturing 3600. In 1814, their manpower is estimated between 25.000 and 30.000 riders.

In 1817, Warren Hastings, the first General governor of the Indies, receives English Compagnie of the Eastern Indies the authorization to organize an elimination campaign of Pindarî which becomes the third war anglo-marathe. Pindarî are surrounded soon by all shares by an large army made up of 120.000 men and 300 guns converging on them since the Bengal, the Dekkan and Goujerat under the supreme command of Hastings in person. Sindhia are forced to sign the Traité of Gwalior and agree to help with the eradication of Pindarî which they had hitherto protected. The Peshwâ of Pune, the Râja Bhonsla of Nâgpur and the army of Holkar of Indore try to interpose but are demolished one after the other. Pindarî offer themselves little resistance. Amîr Khân, their more powerful chief who had seized Bhopal in 1811 with died of Jasvant Râo Holkar, joins and accepts the conditions which are made to him: it gives up the city and him and its descendants are seen granting the title of Nawâb of the princely State of Tonk in the Rajputana. The remainder of them go or are pursued like one the their most famous chiefs, Chittu, which being taken refuge in the jungle and killed by a tiger.

Pindarî are sometimes called Pândhara because one found among them men originating in the town of Pândharpur in the Maharashtra.

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