Divine calling: Devotees attending the 136-year-old Arulmigu Sri Ruthra Veeramuthu Maha Mariamman Temple’s consecration in Ayer Itam, Penang.— LIM BENG TATT/The Star
GEORGE TOWN: The sun was out and there was a glint from the bottom of the well beside the house of Raman Nair Krishna Nair when he was fetching water.
That glint had come from a small statue of the Goddess Amman. This was back in 1886 and Raman Nair was one of the early migrants to Penang.
Raman Nair, who was said to be in his 30s at the time and working in Penang Hill even before the hill’s railway was built (1923), got down the well to retrieve the statue.
No one in the village, located in Ayer Itam, knew how it ended up inside the well.
“My father accepted it as a divine calling and built a small shrine for the statue with the help of labourers,” said Raman Nair’s daughter Lelavathey Raman Nair, 85.
She said the shrine was made with just attap (thatch). It was known to be the first shrine in Ayer Itam where a fire-walking ceremony was held in 1898 and which became an annual event.
“Since my father worked in Penang Hill, he gradually brought materials from the hill’s jungle to build a sturdier shrine.
“Major refurbishments were done in 1920, and it became a temple after the first Maha Kumbhabishegam (consecration ceremony) was held in 1926,” said Lelavathey at the temple’s consecration ceremony on Friday.
This was the third consecration ceremony. Previous ones were held in 1920 and 2009.
The temple is now named the Arulmigu Sri Ruthra Veeramuthu Maha Mariamman Devasthanam.
A project to build a completely new building with archways and towers was undertaken in 2002.
Ornately carved sculptures, paintings, additional statues and extensions were done to accommodate more devotees with another consecration ceremony performed in 2009 with a “Rajagopuram” (dome).
Temple committee chairman M. Krishnamurti said the present temple refurbishment had cost RM800,000.
He said work started on the temple in November last year.
And where is the first statue of the Goddess Amman found at the bottom of Raman Nair’s well?
Lelavathy said it had resided in the temple until 2009 when it was replaced with a new one.
For now, the whereabouts of the original statue is shrouded in secrecy.
