The Malis have a Brahmanical legend of the usual type indicating
that their hereditary calling was conferred and ratified by divine
authority. [162] This is to the effect that the first Mali was a
garland-maker attached to the household of Raja Kansa of Mathura. One
day he met with Krishna, and, on being asked by him for a chaplet of
flowers, at once gave it. On being told to fasten it with string,
he, for want of any other, took off his sacred thread and tied it,
on which Krishna most ungenerously rebuked him for his simplicity
in parting with his _paita_, and announced that for the future his
caste would be ranked among the Sudras.
The above story, combined with the derivation of Mali from _mala_,
a garland, makes it a plausible hypothesis that the calling of the
first Malis was to grow flowers for the adornment of the gods, and
especially for making the garlands with which their images were and
still are decorated. Thus the Malis were intimately connected with the
gods and naturally became priests of the village temples, in which
capacity they are often employed. Mr. Nesfield remarks of the Mali:
[163] "To Hindus of all ranks, including even the Brahmans, he acts
as a priest of Mahadeo in places where no Gosain is to be found,
and lays the flower offerings on the _lingam_ by which the deity is
symbolised. As the Mali is believed to have some influence with the god
to whose temple he is attached, none objects to his appropriating the
fee which is nominally presented to the god himself. In the worship
of those village godlings whom the Brahmans disdain to recognise
and whom the Gosain is not permitted to honour the Mali is sometimes
employed to present the offering. He is thus the recognised hereditary
priest of the lower and more ignorant classes of the population." In
the Central Provinces Malis are commonly employed in the temples of
Devi because goats are offered to the goddess and hence the worship
cannot be conducted by Brahmans. They also work as servants in Jain
temples under the priest. They sweep the temple, clean the utensils,
and do other menial business. This service, however, does not affect
their religion and they continue to be Hindus.
His services in providing flowers for the gods would be remunerated
by contributions of grain from the cultivators, the acceptance
of which would place the Mali below them in the rank of a village
menial, though higher than most of the class owing to the purity of
his occupation. His status was probably much the same as that of the
Guraos or village priests of Mahadeo in the Maratha country. And though
he has now become a cultivator, his position has not improved to the
level of other cultivating castes for the reasons already given. It
was probably the necessity of regularly watering his plants in order
to obtain a longer and more constant supply of blooms which first
taught the Mali the uses of irrigation.