About Malakar Bari,suri Birbhum in Suri, Suri

Malakars lived around Dhaka and other smaller towns of Bengal. The origin of the word Malakar came from Sanskrit. It is a Sandhi of mala and akar, which means a person who shapes mala, i.e a garlander. They are expert shola craftsmen. The Malakars are one of the nine artisan class that constituted the Navashākha and for generations they are involved in this craft. The nine trading casts that constitutes Navashaka are Kumbhakar, Karmakar, Malakar, Kangsakar, Sankhakar, Swarnakar, Sutradhar, Chitrakar and Tantubaya. There is a legend associated with this caste, as H H Rishley writes in his book THE TRIBES and CASTES of BENGAL, "In Bengal the caste is included among the Nava Sakha and its members profess to trace their descent from the garland maker attached to the household of Raja Kansa of Mathura, who, when met by Krishna, was asked for a chaplet of flowers and at once gave it. On being told to fasten it with a 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 not be ranked among the Brahmins. Like others of the higher castes, the Malakars claim to have originally come from Mathura in the reign of Jahangir