Naraina Pillai

There, he came into contact with Stamford Raffles, a senior official of the British East India Company, who was keen to establish a new trading post at the southern end of the Straits of Malacca.

However, a fire in 1822 destroyed his business, leaving him in debt to British merchants who had let him large volumes of cloth on credit.

At land he obtained in Commercial Square (now Raffles Place), he erected new warehouses and rebuilt his business from scratch, eventually paying off his debts and remaking his wealth.

Here, he erected the Sri Mariamman Temple in 1827,[2] which endures today as the oldest Hindu place of worship on the island, and one of the National Monuments of Singapore.

Nevertheless, Pillai’s standing led to his appointment by the British as the chief of the Indian population, which conferred on him powers to settle disputes within the community.

The present gopuram of the Sri Mariamman Temple was built in 1925, replacing an earlier tower. Although the temple was founded as an institution on its present site by Pillai in 1827, little remains of the original structure he built.