_Mali, Marar, Maral_. [155]--The functional caste of vegetable
and flower-gardeners. The terms Mali and Marar appear to be used
indifferently for the same caste, the former being more common in the
west of the Province and the latter in the eastern Satpura Districts
and the Chhattisgarh plain. In the Nerbudda valley and on the Vindhyan
plateau the place of both Mali and Marar is taken by the Kachhi of
Upper India. [156] Marar appears to be a Marathi name, the original
term, as pointed out by Mr. Hira Lal, being Malal, or one who grows
garden-crops in a field; but the caste is often called Mali in the
Maratha country and Marar in the Hindi Districts. The word Mali is
derived from the Sanskrit _mala_, a garland. In 1911 the Malis numbered
nearly 360,000 persons in the present area of the Central Provinces,
and 200,000 in Berar. A German writer remarks of the caste [157]
that: "It cannot be considered to be a very ancient one. Generally
speaking, it may be said that flowers have scarcely a place in the
Veda. Wreaths of flowers, of course, are used as decorations, but
the separate flowers and their beauty are not yet appreciated. That
lesson was first learned later by the Hindus when surrounded by
another flora. Amongst the Homeric Greeks, too, in spite of their
extensive gardening and different flowers, not a trace of horticulture
is yet to be found." It seems probable that the first Malis were not
included among the regular cultivators of the village but were a lower
group permitted to take up the small waste plots of land adjoining the
inhabited area and fertilised by its drainage, and the sandy stretches
in the beds of rivers, on which they were able to raise the flowers
required for offerings and such vegetables as were known. They still
hold a lower rank than the ordinary cultivator. Sir D. Ibbetson writes
[158] of the gardening castes: "The group now to be discussed very
generally hold an inferior position among the agricultural community
and seldom if ever occupy the position of the dominant tribe in any
considerable tract of country. The cultivation of vegetables is looked
upon as degrading by the agricultural classes, why I know not, unless
it be that night-soil is generally used for their fertilisation; and
a Rajput would say: 'What! Do you take me for an Arain?' if anything
was proposed which he considered derogatory." But since most Malis
in the Central Provinces strenuously object to using night-soil as
a manure the explanation that this practice has caused them to rank
below the agricultural castes does not seem sufficient. And if the
use of night-soil were the real circumstance which determined their
social position, it seems certain that Brahmans would not take water
from their hands as they do. Elsewhere Sir D. Ibbetson remarks: [159]
"The Malis and Sainis, like all vegetable growers, occupy a very
inferior position among the agricultural castes; but of the two the
Sainis are probably the higher, as they more often own land or even
whole villages, and are less generally mere market-gardeners than
are the Malis." Here is given what may perhaps be the true reason
for the status of the Mali caste as a whole. Again Sir C. Elliot
wrote in the _Hoshangabad Settlement Report_: "Garden crops are
considered as a kind of fancy agriculture and the true cultivator,
the Kisan, looks on them with contempt as little peddling matters;
what stirs his ambition is a fine large wheat-field eighty or a
hundred acres in extent, as flat as a billiard-table and as black as
a Gond." Similarly Mr. Low [160] states that in Balaghat the Panwars,
the principal agricultural caste, look down on the Marars as growers
of petty crops like _sama_ and kutki. In Wardha the Dangris, a small
caste of melon and vegetable growers, are an offshoot of the Kunbis;
and they will take food from the Kunbis, though these will not accept
it from them, their social status being thus distinctly lower than that
of the parent caste. Again the Kohlis of Bhandara, who grow sugarcane
with irrigation, are probably derived from an aboriginal tribe, the
Kols, and, though they possess a number of villages, rank lower than
the regular cultivating castes. It is also worth noting that they do
not admit tenant-right in their villages among their own caste, and
allot the sugarcane plots among the cultivators at pleasure. [161] In
Nimar the Malis rank below the Kunbis and Gujars, the good agricultural
castes, and it is said that they grow the crops which the cultivators
proper do not care to grow. The Kachhis, the gardening caste of the
northern Districts, have a very low status, markedly inferior to that
of the Lodhis and Kurmis and little if any better than the menial
Dhimars. Similarly, as will be seen later, the Marars themselves
have customs pointing clearly to a non-Aryan origin. The Bhoyars of
Betul, who grow sugarcane, are probably of mixed origin from Rajput
fathers and mothers of the indigenous tribes; they eat fowls and are
much addicted to liquor and rank below the cultivating castes. The
explanation seems to be that the gardening castes are not considered
as landholders, and have not therefore the position which attaches
to the holding of land among all early agricultural peoples, and
which in India consisted in the status of a constituent member of
the village community. So far as ceremonial purity goes there is no
difference between the Malis and the cultivating castes, as Brahmans
will take water from both. It may be surmised that this privilege
has been given to the Malis because they grow the flowers required
for offerings to the gods, and sometimes officiate as village priests
and temple servants; and their occupation, though not on a level with
regular agriculture, is still respectable. But the fact that Brahmans
will take water from them does not place the Malis on an equality with
the cultivating castes, any more than it does the Nais (barbers) and
Dhimars (watermen), the condemned menial servants of the cultivators,
from whom Brahmans will also take water from motives of convenience.