Yashwant Dinkar Pendharkar (9 March 1899 – 26 November 1985) was a Marathi poet from Maharashtra, India.
At the 1921 Marathi Sahitya Sammelan in Baroda, Pendharkar met Madhav Julian and Shridhar Ranade, and the three formed a friendship based on common literary interests.
Soon Gajanan Tryambak Madkholkar, Shankar Kanetkar (poet Girish), and D. L. Gokhale joined the meetings, and the group eventually identified itself as Ravikiran Mandal.
(The previous year, soon after Pratap Singh's accession to the throne following the death of his highly public-spirited grandfather Sayajirao Gayakwad, Pendharkar had composed his epic Kawya Kirit (काव्य-किरीट), which contained a description of the obligations of a princely head of a state toward the subjects.
Pendharkar, a recipient of the civilian honour of the Padma Bhushan,[1] presided over Marathi Sahitya Sammelan in Mumbai in 1950.