PĀINDĀ KHĀN (d.1635), spelt Painde Khān in Sikh chronicles, was the son of Fateh Khān, an Afghān resident of the village of 'Ālimpur, 7 km northeast of Kartārpur in the present Jalandhar district of the Punjab. His parents died while he was still very young, and he was brought up by his maternal uncle, Ismā'īll Khān, of Vaḍḍā Mīr, near Kartārpur. According to Gurbilās Chhevīṅ Pātshāhī, Ismā'īl Khān, along with his 16-year old nephew and some other Pāṭhāns of his village, once accompanied a Sikh saṅgat proceeding to Amritsar on the occasion of Dīvālī to see Gurū Hargobind. The Gurū, pleased with the manly demeanour of Pāindā Khān, engaged him to be trained as a soldier. Pāindā Khān grew up into a brave, hefty warrior and showed his mettle fighting against the imperial troops at Amritsar (1629). Gurū Hargobind always treated him with special consideration. While at Kartārpur, he had Pāindā Khān married to an Afghān girl from Chhoṭā Mīr, and asked him to stay there with his bride. During his visits to Kartārpur, the Gurū would take him out for the chase, and shower him with praise and gifts. Pāindā Khān was in Gurū Hargobind's train during his visit to ḍaraulī Bhāī in 1631. After the death of Mātā Dāmodarī there in November that year, he was told to escort the family back to Kartārpur, while the Gurū himself set out on a journey across the Mālvā tract to meet the saṅgats. As the Gurū arrived at Kartārpur after the battle of Mehrāj in December 1634, Pāindā Khān presented himself and, to quote Bhāī Santokh Siṅgh,Srī Gur Pratāp Sūraj Granth, spoke boastfully: "Had I been there I would not have let the Gurū go forward and expose himself to danger, nor would have Bhāī Jeṭhā died." About this time Pāindā Khān married his daughter to Āsmān Khān, an Afghān youth of the village of Chhoṭā Mīr itself. On the occasion of the next Baisākhī, 29 March 1635, Sikhs from far and near came with presents to pay homage to the Gurū. Chitra Sain, a rich merchant, presented a beautiful horse, a white hawk, a costly dress and a khaṇḍe or dual-edged sword. Gurū Hargobind gave the hawk to Bābā Gurdittā, his eldest son, and bestowed the horse, the dress and the sword upon Pāindā Khān. As the latter went home, elated at having been so honoured by the Gurū, his son-in-law, Āsmān Khān, claimed the gifts which Pāindā Khān reluctantly passed on to him. Āsmān Khān, donning the dress and sword, went out hunting the following day riding the horse. Bābā Gurdittā, with his newly acquired white hawk, also happened to be sporting in the same area. The hawk fell into the hands of Āsmān Khān, who took it home. Pāindā Khān who turned up without wearing the dress gifted to him, denied before the Gurū that the gifts had changed hands or that the hawk was in the possession of his son-in-law. Gurū Hargobind sent a Sikh, Bhāī Bidhī Chand, to Chhoṭā Mīr, and the gifts along with the hawk were recovered from Āsmān Khān. Chagrined at the exposure of his perjury, Pāindā Khān openly turned against his patron. With the help of the faujdār of Jalandhar, he attacked the Gurū but was worsted in the battle which, according to Bhaṭṭ Vahī Multānī Sindhī, raged for three days, from 26 to 28 April 1635. Pāindā Khān fell to Gurū Hargobind's sword on the final day. The Gurbilās Chhevīṅ Pātshāhī records that, as Pāindā lay dying, the Gurū told him to recite the kalimah, the Muhammadan confession of faith, shading with his shield his face from the scorching sun.