ective castes. Most of the Hindu men belonged
to the Ladul or grass-cutter class, and their occupation was to bring
grass and firewood to the camps. "Those born in the Durrahs or camps,"
Malcolm states, [444] "appear to have been ignorant in a degree almost
beyond belief and were in the same ratio superstitious. The women of
almost all the Muhammadan Pindaris dressed like Hindus and worshipped
Hindu deities. From accompanying their husbands in most of their
excursions they became hardy and masculine; they were usually mounted
on small horses or camels, and were more dreaded by the villagers
than the men, whom they exceeded in cruelty and rapacity." Colonel
Tod notes that the Pindaris, like other Indian robbers, were devout
in the observance of their religion:

"A short distance to the west of the Regent's (Kotah) camp is the
Pindari-ka-chhaoni, where the sons of Karim Khan, the chief leader of
those hordes, resided; for in those days of strife the old Regent would
have allied himself with Satan, if he had led a horde of plunderers. I
was greatly amused to see in this camp the commencement of an Id-Gah
or place of prayer; for the villains, while they robbed and murdered
even defenceless women, prayed five times a day!" [445]

8. The existing Pindaris

While the freebooting Pindaris had no regular caste organisation,
their descendants have now become more or less of a caste in
accordance with the usual tendency of a distinctive occupation,
producing a difference in status, to form a fresh caste. The existing
Pindaris in the Central Provinces are both Muhammadans and Hindus, the
Muhammadans, as already stated, having been originally the children
of Hindus who were kidnapped and converted. It is one of the very
few merits of the Pindaris that they did not sell their captives to
slavery. Their numerous prisoners of all ages and both sexes were
employed as servants, made over to the chiefs or held to ransom from
their relatives, but the Pindaris did not carry on like the Banjaras
a traffic in slaves. [446] The Muhammadan Pindaris were said some
time ago to have no religion, but with the diffusion of knowledge
they have now adopted the rites of Islam and observe its rules and
restrictions. In Bhandara the Hindu Pindaris are Garoris or Gowaris,
They say that the ancestors of the Pindaris and Gowaris were two
brothers, the business of the Pindari brother being to tend buffaloes
and that of the Gowari brother to herd cow