Take A Look At One Of The Oldest Hindu Shrines In Singapore

SINGAPORE, (ANI) – Sri Srinivasa Perumal Temple, is one of the oldest and largest Hindu temples in Singapore.

The temple dates to the late 1800s. This was a time when influential community leaders like Arunachala Pillay, Cootaperumal Pillay, Ramasamy Pillay, Appasamy Pillay, Chockalingam Pillay and Ramasamy Jamidar, all had close working links with the East India Company, and wanted to build a Hindu temple for Vaishnavite worship.

These men came together to purchase a piece of land measuring 2 acres from the East India Company in 1851 for 26 rupees and 8 annas. Notably, Indian currency was used in Singapore at that time.

The temple built in 1885 was referred to as the Narasinga Perumal Kovil.

Ganesan who has been living in Singapore for 25-30 years said this temple is very popular among the Hindu community even though there are many temples in Singapore.” It has a marriage hall as well and is very popular among Hindus,” he said,

Following the construction of the original temple structure, two adjoining parcels of land were later obtained for the temple’s needs.

In 1894, devotees Moona Sithumbaram Pillay and Vinasithamby Murugesu purchased a 25,792 square feet piece of land and donated it to the temple.

The second piece of adjoining land measuring 3,422 square feet was obtained by the Mohammedan Hindu Endowments Board, MHEB from the East India Company on a 999-year lease at an annual fee of 1 Straits Settlement dollar.

Another Indian national from Tamil Nadu, who is in Singapore since 1995 and is in shipbuilding, restaurant and film production said, “It is one of the heritages places in Singapore. Not only from India, but people from all over the world visit the temple.”

Speaking on the specialty of ‘Little India’ area, he said, “Once you come to Little India, you can have all the solutions of groceries, food, ornaments, jewelry…so it’s a very heritage place in Singapore. “The original temple structure remained unchanged until the early 1950s. In 1952, the MHEB decided to rebuild and reinstate the Temple. The redevelopment was carried out in the early 1960s which was financed by well-known Indian community leader and philanthropist P Govindasamy Pillay.

Pillay is credited with building the first two storey marriage hall within the temple. It was officially opened by Enche Yusoff Bin Ishak, the first president of Singapore on 19th June 1965.

At this juncture, many elders advised that the main deity of the temple be changed from the imposing Lord Narasimha to the gracious Lord Srinivasa Perumal. The temple was thus, renamed ‘Sri Srinivasa Perumal Temple.