Samayapuram Mariamman comes to Singapore

[Guest guest]

The void deck of a Housing Board Development (HDB) flat in Jurong

West, on the island of Singapore would appear to be an unlikely

location for the celebration of a village ritual from Tamlinadu.

Yet, this is precisely the place where the second observance of the

Kuul Vaarppu celebrations now in its seventh year, was held in the

Tamil month of adi in the year 2000.

 

The year before (1999), the first-ever celebration of the organized

event- extending beyond the single Hindu household, occurred in the

home of the Singaporean Indian, Hindu couple Mr. and Mrs. S. Rama

Moorthy in their 5-room HDB apartment in Jurong West, Singapore, in

the presence of about 50 family members, friends and devotees of

Samayapuram Mariamman.

 

The second year saw the number of supporters increase four-fold to

200, and attendance at the event has seen a geometric rise year

after year, compelling the organizers to seek an alternative

location for holding the annual event which is attracting bigger

crowds. The larger site decided upon was an open field along Jurong

Street West Street 42, beside Block 555. This is a plot of HDB land,

surrounded by high rise residential apartments, and residents can

only utilize the land for a private purpose, after due approval from

the HDB office. Since the year 2001, the Sri Samayapuram Mariamman

Kuul Vaarppu Celebrations have been held in this open plot of land

with great success.

 

This move of the event from the home, to the void deck and

eventually to the open field reflect, first and foremost, the

intense and deep-felt commitment of the organizers (led by the Mr

and Mrs. Moorthy) to the deity, Samayapuram Mariamman and their

desire to bring her to Singapore and in their own words, `to do

something for her here.' Second, this is also evidence of the

growing popularity of the deity amongst Singaporean Hindus, as seen

in the large crowds (the numbers have now climed into the thousands)

that have been packing to the now communal festival since its

inception seven years ago. It is interesting that although Mariamman

has been a well-known and widely-worshipped deity on the island

since the early days of Hindu presence in the region, there is as

yet no independent temple dedicated to the deity in Singapore.

Instead, in Singapore and Malaysia there are, of course, numerous

temples dedicated to the generic village goddess from Tamilnadu -

Mariamman, and she is also present in Hindu temples where she is not

the presiding deity. In Malaysia, she ranks as the most popular of

all Hindu deities- indicated by the number of temples in her honour.

In Singapore, two temples are dedicated to the deity Mariamman.

 

It is thus not without significance that since the first Kuul

Varruppu Celebrations in 1999, the home of Mr. and Mrs. Moorthy has

been popularly labeled by supporters as `Samayapuram.' This

description is now even more apt, as starting in 2001 a panchaloka

statue of Sri Samayapuram Mariamman (built in 6 months, and

especially ordered and secured from Swamimalai, Tamilnadu, India)

sits installed in their Jurong West apartment, after having had the

nayanumilana (eye opening) ceremony and other installation

ceremonies performed by a Brahmin priest, according to proper Agamic

rites and procedures.

 

At present, the Kuul Varruppu Celebrations take the form of an

elaborate 3-day event that involves the energies and efforts of a

large organizing group, that starts the `work'

(organizational, financial, administrative and ritual) about three

months before the August date of the festival. The celebrations over

the three days include the following ritual components: Homam for

cleaning up (on day 1) Panthal Kaal Naduthal, Homam for Sri Madurai

Veeran (day 2), Homam for Sri Samayapuram Mariamman (day 3) and the

cooking of the kuul on the final day. It would not be an

exaggeration to describe the efforts to raise adequate funds and the

level of labour and industry required in a successful organization

of this event, as gargantuan and colossal tasks. It is not possible

to document in detail this work here, but is something I will

undertake in a separate piece I am writing on the festival.

 

In order to understand the contemporary events, it is important to

go back in time to ask the most important question: What factors led

to the initiation of this event in Singapore? What would lead a

couple of Singaporean Hindus, with no childhood and familial history

of worshipping Samayapuram Mariamman (either as household, village

or personal deity) to launch a public festival in her honour? In my

interviews with Mrs. Murthy and her husband the following account of

the pull to Samayapuram Mariamman emerges: Mrs. Vanmathi Rama

Moorthy (Banu) recalls waking up from a powerful dream one morning

in the year 2000.

 

In this fateful dream, she had a vision of a `lady in a red saree

who came out of Sri Samayapuram Mariamman Temple and hold her that

she is coming to our house' and she `asked me to make

arrangements for Kuul Varruppu.' Mrs. Moorthy related this dream

to

her husband, saying that she felt this was a calling and that she

had to go to Samayapuram. This was a place she says neither she nor

her husband knew about. But the pull was so strong, they felt

compelled to enquire more about the place and before long, Mrs.

Moorthy was on her way to Samayapuram to visit the Mariamman temple.

She describes this as a highly emotional `meeting' with the

deity who

struck her as a `very happy deity.' Mrs. Moorthy returned the

next

day to Singapore and things set into motion. This is what she says

of her trip:

 

I don't know how to describe the emotions I felt over there. It

was the very first time that I lay eyes upon amma. I feel that she

is calling us. She wants all these to be done. I went there as a

messenger and came back as one.

 

The "all these to be done" have taken the form of the present

3-day event observed in Jurong West as Sri Samayapuram Mariamman

Kuul Vaarppu Celebrations. For the uninitiated, `Kuul

Vaarppu' is

associated with the goddess Mariamman, and is observed in Tamil

Hindu households on a small scale. As explained to me by Mr. and

Mrs. Moorthy, it is a porridge-based offering to the deity. I was

also told that the `kuul' refers to `broken rice' and

`varruppu' means an `offering.' I also learnt that in

India, ragi

grains are used instead of rice. The porridge cooked form broken

rice or ragi grains and mixed with yoghurt is a simple concoction

typically offered to Mariamman in Tamilnadu villages I was told. In

the Singapore observance of the festival, the rice to be cooked into

porridge is collected by Mr. and Mrs. Moorthy from 20-25 different

households personally by them on a single day. But this is more than

collection of rice Mrs. Moorthy says, instead it is also

`collecting everybody's problems.' These initiatives take

the ritual

of kuul vaarppu beyond the individual household unit and give it a

distinctly communal and collective feel, which build solidarities

beyond kinship and family ties.

 

In 2003, the festival demonstrated multi-religiosity and racial

harmony in Singapore. In this year, the HDB was approached by Mr.

Moorthy's group and a group of Chinese/Taoist residents for the

observance of 7th month prayers for the same dates. The two groups

met and sorted out logistical and other issues, reaching a

compromise, agreeing to share space and labour and some of the

funding for tentage. By now the event has a significant public

profile and draws crowds of up to a 1000 devotees. During last

year's celebrations, the invited guest of honour was the Minister

– Prime Minister's Office and Member for Parliament for

Jurong GRC,

Mr. Lim Boon Heng, which gave it a different visibility.

 

Although these celebrations were spearheaded by two individuals and

their immediate circle of friends, the enhanced scale of the

festival today requires more manpower and organizational support.

Also the core members of the organizing group have collectively felt

the need to formalize the group and to extend their activities

beyond the purely `religious' ones to include social service

and voluntary tasks and thus serve the broader community. Such

thinking has led to the official registration of a society under the

Societies Act, Singapore. The society is known formally by the

name `Sri Samayapuram Mariamman Pillaigal' (literally

`the children of Sri Samayapuram Mariamman'), an appropriate

description given that the devotees refer to the deity

affectionately as`amma.' The society has an executive

committee of

15 members and about 30 members in total, and was officially

registered on 11 January 2005. The group sees this as an important

step in moving the broader aims and objectives of the collectivity

forward. The constitution of the society lists the following as its

3 main objectives:

 

1) To conduct annual religious and cultural activities.

2) To provide voluntary assistance to social and community

organizations; and

3) To organize programmes and activities to support needy families.

 

Since being formalized, the society has this year organized and

conducted the Chitra Pournami prayers for about 50 women in a

community hall in Jurong West. This event was well-supported by

members. The group also conducts `ayya prayers' annually in a

big way. It has plans to initiate and organize activities catering

to the needs of the elderly population as well as to the very young

within the community, and embark on charitable and educational

initiatives. The organization of the group and its registration of

the "Sri Samayapuram Mariamman Pillaigal' now gives the

society a legality, legitimacy and maneuverability that is very

significant.

 

The presence of the goddess Mariamman (and her continued veneration)

in Singapore and Malaysia is not surprising, given the history of

Indian and Hindu migration to the region. British colonial

initiatives moved large numbers of village-based labourers from

India, including from Tamilnadu into Malaya to undertake

infrastructural work in the colonies. These moving populations

brought their local gods and goddesses with them in their

consciousness and established places of worship and perpetuated

household and communal rituals and festivals, including tai pucam

and timiti.

 

Samayapuram Mariamman is today not longer viewed just as a village

deity. She has been moved into temples built for her in cities in

Tamilnadu, such as Chennai. With her devotees she has traveled far

and wide, outside India, and can now be found in such places as

Fiji, Mauritius, Trinidad and Tobago, parts of East Africa and

certainly in Malaysia and Singapore – all those places where

Tamil populations have settled.

 

Although the rituals and practices associated with her worship are

often viewed as part of `folk Hinduism' and considered

`traditional' (or `old fashioned'), it is clear that

the current

attraction of Singapore devotees to Samayapuram Mariamman is

precisely in the appeal of the `old ways' and in the words of

Mrs.

Moorthy to`bring back the old things, things that our parents

did,

things that we have forgotten.' It will be interesting to see how

the festival and group evolve and the shape they take in Singapore

in the future.

 

Vineeta Sinha

[Kani Shanmugam 0]

Thanks and I am really happy to read through information about Sri Samayapuram Mariamman in Singapore.

 

Request you share more details about Sri Samayapuram Mariamman Temple in Singapore and poojas conduted now.

 

ShanmugaKani.

[fazhu 0]

 

Thanks and I am really happy to read through information about Sri Samayapuram Mariamman in Singapore.

 

Request you share more details about Sri Samayapuram Mariamman Temple in Singapore and poojas conduted now.

 

ShanmugaKani.

 

Thanks for sharing and I request that the photo of panchaloha Samayapuram Mariamman be posted here for our venerations.