The Oldest of the Bead-Counters, and a Retail Problem

The mala is the Indian string of prayer beads, and it is very probably the ancestor of every bead-counting device that later appears across Eurasia.

One hundred and eight

A mala classically carries one hundred and eight beads plus a larger head bead, used to count repetitions of a mantra or a name of God; on reaching the head bead the practitioner reverses direction rather than crossing it. Materials carry associations, rudraksha seeds with Shiva, tulsi wood with Vishnu, bodhi seed with the Buddha, and a mala given by a teacher is treated differently from one bought. The Indian mala is the oldest of these devices, and the transmission of bead-counting westward through Islamic and then Christian practice is generally accepted, though the exact route is not documented.

The necklace question

The mala has become a common retail item detached from any practice, worn as a necklace. Practitioners regard this variously, as harmless, as a nuisance, or as the specific problem of wearing an implement of a discipline that is not the wearer's own as an ornament. There is no single position within the traditions on the point, and it is worth not pretending there is: the object sits exactly on the line between devotion and decoration that a great many sacred implements now straddle.