Sri Srinivasa Perumal Temple

Sri Srinivasa Perumal Temple is a Hindu temple to Vishnu at 397 Serangoon Road in Little India, about 150 metres from Farrer Park MRT station. Community leaders with links to the East India Company bought the land in 1851 and built a temple to Narasimha, the lion-headed avatar of Vishnu, known as the Narasinga Perumal Kovil. Reconstruction in the 1960s was largely financed by the philanthropist P. Govindasamy Pillay, and when the building was completed in 1966 the chief deity became the gentler Srinivasa Perumal and the temple took its present name. The temple was declared a national monument in 1978, and its rajagopuram, the entrance tower carved with avatars of Vishnu, went up in 1979.

Inside, the mandapam (prayer hall) carries relief carvings and circular mandalas, and the main sanctum, which only priests may enter, holds Srinivasa Perumal flanked by two door guardians. Lakshmi, Andal, Hanuman and Ganesha have their own shrines. Each January or February the Thaipusam procession of kavadi bearers sets off from here for Sri Thendayuthapani Temple on Tank Road, and before Theemithi a procession of about four kilometres walks from here to Sri Mariamman Temple. Brahmotsavam, Vaikunda Ekadasi and Purattasi Sani are the main temple festivals. The Hindu Endowments Board asks visitors to cover shoulders and knees and to leave footwear outside; shawls are provided.