Nimadi

The Nimadi are the people of Nimar, the country south of the Vindhya Range where the Narmada and Tapti valleys are parted by the Satpura hills. Their speech is a Western Indo-Aryan language of the Rajasthani group. Above the southern plain rises Asirgarh, whose pass carried the main road between upper India and the Deccan for centuries.

In the fourteenth century Nimar was held by Ahir, or Gawli, chiefs. Under Muslim rule Burhanpur became the regional capital, and Akbar's army took Asirgarh in 1599 when Nimar was drawn into the Mughal subah system.

Maratha forces seized Asirgarh in 1760 and the country was shared between the Holkar and Scindia houses; Maheshwar served as the Holkar capital of Malwa until 1818, when Malhar Rao Holkar III moved his court to Indore.