The name is derived from _mala_, a garland, and it would appear that the Mali was first employed to grow flowers for the garlands with which the gods and also their worshippers were adorned at religious ceremonies.

Flowers were held sacred and were an essential adjunct to worship in India as in Greece and Rome.

The sacred flowers of India are the lotus, the marigold and the _champak_ [63] and from their use in religious worship is derived the custom of adorning the guests with garlands at all social functions, just as in Rome and Greece they wore crowns on their heads.

It seems not unlikely that this was the purpose for which cultivated flowers were first grown, at any rate in India.

The Mali was thus a kind of assistant in the religious life of the village, and he is still sometimes placed in charge of the village shrines and is employed as temple-servant in Jain temples.