Located in the downtown Chinatown district, Sri Mariamman Kovil (ஸ்ரீ மாரியம்மன் கோவில்) is Singapore's oldest Hindu temple, founded in 1827, just eight years after the East India Company established a trading settlement on the island at the southern end of the Straits of Malacca. The temple was founded by Narayana Pillai (நாராயண பிள்ளை), a government clerk of Tamil origin who worked for the British in Penang and in 1819 was persuaded by Stamford Raffles, a senior official of the British East India Company, to travel with him to work at this new settlement. The establishment of the British trading post in that year led to its founding as a British colony in 1824, an event generally understood to mark the founding of colonial Singapore. The temple is primarily patronized by the Tamil community, is built in the Southern Indian Dravidian architectural style, and is dedicated to the Hindu deity Sri Mariamman, in South India the name for the Hindu goddess Lakshmi (लक्ष्मी), the goddess of beauty and good fortune, who surfaced during the churning of the Ocean of Milk seated on the waves on a lotus flower. She became Vishnu (विष्णु)'s consort and was incarnated with him each time he incarnated as one of his avatars (अवतार) on earth. For example, she was born with him as Sita (सीता), the wife of Rama (रम), and as Rukmini (रुक्मिणी), the principal wife of Krishna (कृष्ण), the eighth and most popular avatar of Vishnu, depicted with a blue complexion and playing the bansuri (बांसुरी), a bamboo flute of which he is a master, and although an avatar of Vishnu, Krishna is worshipped as a god in his own right, and as such he is the most celebrated god of the Hindu pantheon. The lotus is one of Sri Mariamman's attributes and her vahana (वहन) or ‘vehicle’ may be an elephant or owl, though in iconography her mount is often depicted to be a lion. As such, the Sri Mariamman Temple features depictions of many of these Hindu deities in their various forms, as well as of characters and scenes from the famous stories in their lives, their mounts and attributes. The pyramidal frustum-shaped tower over the main entrance symbolizes Mt. Meru (मेरु), the mythological and sacred golden mountain, i.e. the centre of the universe in Hindu cosmology and the abode of the gods represented on this colourful rooftops, that is decorated with images of the gods and goddesses that dwell on Mt. Meru. Inside the temple, Brahmin priests are performing the daily pujas (पूजा), showing devotion to the Hindu deities by worshipping their images, accompanied by live music and the sound of a bell. Besides prayer, these rituals of worship include the offering of food, such as coconuts and bananas, money or even cigarettes, the burning of incense, the ringing of bells, and the use of candles and oil lamps. Whereas in Hinduism bananas are considered a sacred and auspicious fruit that symbolizes fertility, and abundance, coconuts are offered as a sacred fruit that symbolizes purity and auspiciousness, in which the coconut's hard outer shell represents the physical body, while the inner fruit represents the soul. Hence, breaking the coconut is considered an act of surrendering one's ego and offering oneself to the divine, whilst the nourishing water inside the coconut is believed to represent the essence of life. After the rituals, devotees who gathered to witness them line up to receive a blessing in the form of a pundra (पुण्ड्र), i.e. a ‘sectarian mark’ and kind of tilaka (तिलक), that the Brahmin priest places on the forehead, usually between the eyebrows. One of the eye-catchers at the temple is a large head of Aravan (அரவான்), a patron god of transgender people throughout South Asia and the son of Arjuna (अर्जुन), the legendary hero of the Indian epic Mahabharata (महाभारत), with the naga (नाग) princess Uluppi (உலுப்பி). Also noticeable are seven statues of women seated alongside each other, each dressed in a saree (साड़ी), the traditional female dress of India, of a different colour. They represent the Sabtakanniyar (சப்தகன்னியர்) or Sapta Matrika (सप्तमात्रिरिका), i.e. the ‘Seven Mothers’, seven goddesses that are worshipped in South India and that are believed to wield great power. Adjacent to this and opposite of one of the giant heads of Aravan, is a statue of Aiyanar (ஐயனார்), a guardian folk deity, seated with his two wives, Purnadevi (பூர்ணதேவி) and Pushkaladevi (புஷ்கலாதேவி/புஷ்கலதேவி). 回