2. Caste legend
The Mālis have a Brāhmanical legend of the usual type indicating that their hereditary calling was conferred and ratified by divine authority.[8] This is to the effect that the first Māli was a garland-maker attached to the household of Rāja Kānsa 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 paīta, and announced that for the future his caste would be ranked among the Sūdras.
The above story, combined with the derivation of Māli from māla, a garland, makes it a plausible hypothesis that the calling of the first Mālis 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 Mālis 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 Māli:[9] “To Hindus of all ranks, including even the Brāhmans, he acts as a priest of Mahādeo 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 Māli 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 Brāhmans disdain to recognise and whom the Gosain is not permitted to honour the Māli 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 Mālis are commonly employed in the temples of Devi because goats are offered to the goddess and hence the worship cannot be conducted by Brāhmans. 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 Māli 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 Mahādeo in the Marātha 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 Māli the uses of irrigation.