The Sri Mariamman Temple is Singapore's most established Hindu sanctuary. It is an agamic sanctuary, worked in the Dravidian style. Situated at 244 South Bridge Road, in the downtown Chinatown region, the sanctuary serves the dominant part Hindu Singaporeans, Tamilians, in the city-state. Because of its compositional and verifiable essentialness, the sanctuary has been gazetted a National Monument and is a noteworthy vacation spot. Sri Mariamman Temple is overseen by the Hindu Endowments Board, a statutory board under the Ministry of Community Development, Youth and Sports.
The Sri Mariamman Temple was established in 1827 by Naraina Pillai, eight years after the East India Company set up an exchanging settlement in Singapore. Pillai was an administration assistant from Penang who landed in Singapore with Sir Stamford Raffles on his second visit to the island in May 1819. Pillai went ahead to set up the island's first development organization, and furthermore entered the material exchange. He quickly settled himself in business and was recognized as a pioneer of the Indian people group. By 1827, Naraina Pillai had fabricated a basic sanctuary made of wood and attap. Around the same time, he introduced Sinna Amman, a little representation of the goddess Mariamman, in the sanctuary. Mariamman is a country South Indian mother goddess who is particularly loved for assurance against maladies. As per the Hindu Endowments Board, the present administrators of the sanctuary, the current divinity in the chief sanctum of the sanctuary is the first introduced by Pillai in 1827. Similar to the basic practice, the sanctuary is named after its essential divinity. The sanctuary was likewise referred to enthusiasts throughout the years as the Sithi Vinayagar and Gothanda Ramaswamy Mariamman Temple or, all the more basically, Mariamman (kovil being the Tamil word for sanctuary).
Worked in the South Indian Dravidian style, this sanctuary highlights a gopuram that ascents over the fundamental passageway along South Bridge Road. It is luxuriously adorned with six levels of models of Hindu divinities, different figures and elaborate improvements. The tower decreases up towards to a formed fancy edge. The size of every level and its models is somewhat littler than that of the level quickly beneath it. This makes the figment of tallness and adds to the typical significance of the building. Flanking the gopuram are a model of Murugan on the privilege and Krishna on the left (as one enters). The figures are all of mortar, which takes into account fine enumerating. They are painted in an assortment of brilliant hues, which adds to the outwardly awesome nature of the gopuram. The concentration of the principle supplication corridor is the focal place of worship of Mariamman, which is flanked by the altars of two auxiliary gods, Rama and Murugan. The fundamental petition corridor is encompassed by a progression of unattached holy places, housed in structure like structures with enriched vault rooftops, known as Vimana. These are devoted to the accompanying divinities: Durga, Ganesh, and Shiva.
The place of worship to Draupadi is the second most essential in the sanctuary, as she is fundamental to the yearly timiti or firewalking celebration held in this sanctuary. To one side of Draupadi are the
five Pandavas from the Mahabharata epic – Yudhishthira, Bhima, Arjuna, Sahadeva and Nakula. They are directed by Lord Krishna.
Once at regular intervals, with regards to Hindu custom, the sanctuary is reconsecrated. A yearly timiti or fire strolling function is held about seven days before Deepavali, the Festival of Lights.