The Concise Oxford Dictionary of World Religions (1882 page)

(Skt., P
li, ‘respect, homage, worship’, perhaps early Dravidian ‘flower’ + ‘offer’). Immensely varied acts, in Eastern religions, of offering, devotion, propitiation, etc., but often including the offering of flowers. In early (Vedic) Hinduism, p
j
began to replace yajña (
sacrifice
) as ‘invocation, reception and entertainment of God as a royal guest’ (Gonda). According to S. K. Chatterji, p
j
developed in the non-Aryan culture:
homa
was exclusively Aryan, requiring animal
sacrifice
(
pa
u-karma
), but p
j
was open to all and required flowers (
puspa-karma
). Certainly in later Buddhism the offering of flowers (
puppha-p
j
) has become the main p
j
ritual.
For Hindus, p
j