Sri Mariamman - Temple of an ancient goddess

Penang has a large community of Indians, broadly divided into those from the North (Bengalis, Sindhis, Gujerati etc.) and the South (Tamils). It is not surprising then that the Penang landscape is dotted with Hindu temples, from the large and ornate to the unostentatious makeshift huts and lean-to's.

One of the more opulent temples in Penang is the Sri Mariamman at Queen Street. It also happens to be one of the oldest. Built in 1883, the temple is named after the goddess Mariamman – also called Mari, Mariamma, Maryamman or Marika – who has devotees all over South India. Historians claim that the worship of Mariamman started as a tribal religion of the Dravidians (an ancient dark-skinned people of southern India) predating the arrival of the Aryans and Brahmanism. There are some who believe that the name Mariamman comes from Mari which means power, and Amman which signifies mother, so she could be regarded as a mother-power figure.

As the name would imply, the Sri Mariamman temple in Penang is devoted to her and features the goddess in various incarnations. During the Navarathri festival (a nine-night celebration when devotees worship female deities like Durga, Lakshmi, Saraswathi and Mariamman), the statue of the latter is taken out in a decorated wooden chariot. The procession winds through Little Madras, where some of her most loyal devotees are found.

One could casually observe that the plethora of temples, mosques and churches in the country are mute symbols of Malaysia's 'multiculturalness.' But on a deeper and more significant level, they serve to quench man's yearning for religious and spiritual fulfillment and his search for the answers to the meaning of life.

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