The Ninaivumalar Tradition of Ceylon Tamils in Singapore: A Study of Cultural Adaptation
What is a Memory Book?
The Book of Memory is a volume traditionally compiled by families, and sometimes friends, in commemoration of a deceased person by Ceylon (Sri Lankan) Tamil communities in Singapore. It is known as Ninaivumalar in Tamil, which can be literally translated as ‘Book of Memories’ or ‘Bouquet of Memories’. It is put together during the customary 31-day mourning and prayers which follow the death of a person. These are designed to release the soul of the deceased from its attachments to its recent worldly life. Compiled during this period the Book of Memory is distributed to relatives and friends, not only locally but across the world.
There are many themes in the memory book but they can largely be included under four major categories – scriptural, genealogical, personal, and social. Scriptural themes can be both iconic in graphic or pictorial forms, and textual. The most common scriptural themes are Tamil hymns, from the Hindu Shaivite tradition which are sung during prayers over the 31-day ritual mourning period. Another common theme in the memory book is the genealogical chart of the deceased including ancestors, descendants and family members. Many ninaivumalars also carry biographies of the deceased person written by a scholar, known as a pandithar, or by family members as well as friends. These are often supplemented by drawings and photographs closely associated with the memory of the deceased. Although not explicitly intended as a goal within any particular book of memory, such memory books constitute an important reservoir of the community’s social history in Singapore. Like gravestones and temple altars of other communities, ninaivumalars are archaeological sites for understanding the history of the Ceylon Tamil community that produce them.
How do Ninaivumalars Carry Social History?
Social history is more than personal history – it the history of the contribution an individual makes to society beyond the family and circle of friends and colleagues and the way society itself impacts the individual. Although it is difficult to separate social history from personal history, the two are nevertheless not quite identical. The memory books allow us to extract the social history of Ceylon Tamils in two different ways. Firstly we can glean it from the personal histories portrayed in such books after making a large collection of them. This would allow suitable generalisations concerning the community as a whole. Such massive undertaking of collecting memory books has yet to be done. What we have at present are small private collections of related family members and friends distributed over a wide population.
We will not undertake such a massive exercise though its significance cannot be ignored. Instead let us look at memory books of some prominent individuals in Singapore who have made important social contributions as educators, lawyers, doctors, politicians, artists, and writers. The historical trajectory of such individuals would also to a large extent mirror the pressures and challenges faced by all Ceylon Tamils as they negotiated their way from their cultural roots in Sri Lanka to become part of Singapore.
Some Pioneer Ninaivumalars
Let us begin by looking at some pioneer ninaivumalars. These give us not only personal histories in an explicit fashion but also implicitly carry social history when we carefully read their text. Since it is difficult to do this in the abstract we have selected seven ninaivumalars of leading figures in diverse disciplines and occupations to demonstrate this. The personal histories of these pioneers can be directly gleaned from their ninaivumalars to which we have provided links. Below we give a brief account of their personal histories.
Asai Kurugulasigamoney (Education)
He was Principal of Raffles Institution in Singapore from 1978 to 1985. This was the earliest and most prestigious school in the country established by Sir Stamford Raffles in 1823 only four years after he founded Singapore as a trading port for the British East India Company.
Arunasalam Mahadeva (Journalism)
Book appear hear soon
Mahadeva was a journalist and founding secretary-general of the Singapore National Union of Journalists which brought together the separate English newspaper Singapore Union of Journalists, the Chinese Journalist Union and the Malay Journalist Union under one umbrella in 1961. The Union continues to this day.
Soocelaraj Selvadurai (Sports)
Book
Sooceleraj, known as Sooce to his friends, was one of Singapore’s most renowned sportsman and sports teacher. He also played a major role in creating many of Singapore’s leading national sportsmen, especially in cricket and hockey.
S.T.V. Lingam (Trade Unionism)
Book
He was the President of the 14400-strong Singapore Army Civil Service Union and Vice-President and Acting President of the Trade Union Congress of Singapore. He was awarded Member of the British Empire (MBE) on the Queen’s Honour List in 1955. In the 1950s he also played a leading role in the People’s Progressive Party led by CC Tan and Justice AP Rajah.
Arumugam T (Tamil Education)
Arumugam noticed in the post-war years that many Tamil children born in Singapore were conversant in English – the colonial and commercial language – but not Tamil. Fearing Tamil children were rapidly losing both knowledge of their mother tongue and culture he combined with several friends to collect funds to build the Kalaimagal Tamil School in 1949. Partly as a result of his endeavours, the Singapore government came to recognise Tamil as an official language and to include the teaching of Tamil in public schools.
Figure: Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew visiting Kalaimagal Tamil School on Yio Chu Kang Road school during his tour of Jalan Kayu constituency, 19 January 1963. Ministry of Information and the Arts Collection, Courtesy of National Archives of Singapore. [Vol TS, p.164] (photograph includes Mr Arumugam and Mr Somasundram)
E. Vikerama Singhan (Publishing)
book
E V Singhan was a leading publisher of Tamil books in Singapore. Given his passion for the Thirukkural he has played a significant role in spreading its popularity by translating it into English. The translation was so-well received that it has gone into more than 17 editions.
Above is a photo of him with Singapore’s first Culture and Foreign Minister Mr S Rajaratnam.
Arumugam Vijiaratnam (Engineering)
book
Vijiaratnam was Director of Engineering Services in the Port of Singapore Authority. He played a crucial role not only in the containerisation of Singapore’s Port, but also in the subsequent construction of Singapore Changi Airport. His expertise in the development of ports was globally recognised and led him to be invited as advisor and consultant for port development in many countries including China. He was the first Asian Vice President of the Institution of Structural Engineers (UK).
For more details on the personal histories and the ninaivumalars of these pioneering figures we can follow the links provided by clicking on their names. Let us now proceed to see how their ninaivumalars produced in Singapore reflect the social history of the community in their new country of domicle.
How have Pioneer Ninaivumalars Adapted to the Singapore Context?
Most of the ninaivumalars in Singapore are of those who came as first generation migrants, although increasingly as their descendants get older, we find more ninaivumalars of those born locally. Reading such ninaivumalars one gets the impression that the Ceylon Tamils, at least those reflected in ninaivumalars, were middle class employees in both colonial and post-colonial society. They worked as station masters in the railways, surveyors in construction works on roads and rail, dressers and doctors, lawyers, school principals and teachers. This upward mobility of the community is traceable to the fact that the first mass arrival of Ceylon Tamils into Singapore and Malaya in 1883 was as technical experts and surveyors to build and maintain the railway lines to transport tin ore and rubber. This paved the way for their expansion into other occupations in British colonial society. Their emphasis on education and hard work also led their children to become upwardly mobile. Indeed one can surmise that their ability to sustain and adapt the ninaivumalar tradition to their new social context within colonial and postcolonial society was itself made possible by their educational and vocational achievements.
The Ceylon Tamils in Singapore very early formed associations that brought them together. One of the earliest South Asian associations in Singapore is the Ceylon Tamils’ Association (SCTA) founded in 1909. It brought together members of diverse religious and cultural backgrounds, especially Hindu and Christian Ceylon Tamils. The community subsequently founded the Ceylon Sports Club (CSC) in 1928 with membership open to both Ceylon Tamils and Sinhalese. The club became renowned for its strong cricket and hockey teams and an important locus for the popularisation of these games in Singapore.
Ceylon Tamils in Singapore also bought land to build the Sri Senpaga Vinayagar Temple in 1913. It was originally constructed as an attap shed with wooden walls on Ceylon Road, named after the country of origin of the community. Renovated and enlarged many times since then, it has now been designated a historic site by the National Heritage Centre. Today the temple is an important locus for the education of young children into Tamil language and culture, as well as dance and music. It also runs religious classes where the Thirumurai – the spiritual core of most ninaivumalars – are taught.
Many Ceylon Tamils see the Singapore Ceylon Tamil Association, the Ceylon Sports Club, and the Sri Senpaga Vinayagar Temple as the triple loci of their cultural identity in Singapore. Though they are also involved in many other associations, clubs and temples these three centers are seen as significant in preserving their communal memory and identity. The Ceylon Tamil Association publishes a journal of communal activities Sanghu regularly, which is sent to all members of the association and temple, and another journal of the Ceylon Sports Club is also distributed to all members of the club. In many ways the ninaivumalars complement these journals of the community.
These centres of association and journals also reveal how the community has come to be influenced in both subtle and profound ways by the religious pluralism, cultural syncreticism and Tamil-English bilingualism in Singapore. These influences can also be traced in the ninaivumalars produced.
How has Singapore’s Cultural Diversity Shaped Pioneer Ninaivumalars?
Let us look at how linguistic, religious and cultural pluralism in Singapore came to be reflected in our selected, pioneer ninaivumalars. One might expect, given the inclusivist nature of modern neo-Hinduism, that ninaivumalars would include contributions from multiple religious perspectives in Singapore. However this is not the case although we do fine contributions to ninavumalars by people from different religious communities, largely focused on their personal relationships with the deceased.
It is also surprising that given the cultural pluralism of Singapore that ninaivumalars, by and large, do not seem to reflect the cultural sycreticism we might expect. Such syncreticism is found in many areas such as attire, food, the arts and even friendships. Yet these syncreticisms are not reflected in ninaivumalar texts. There is one exception though that we find. The pioneer memory books we have selected sometimes carry photographs of men in modern attire, such as a suit and tie and women in traditional costumes such as a saree. This seems to project the image of a synthesis of modernity and tradition rather than cultural pluralism. We do not find pictures where men or women adopt the traditional costumes of the majority Chinese and Malaya populations among whom they live.
In this respect the cultural syncreticism we would expect in Singapore does not seem reflected in ninaivumalars. What is found however is that eulogies in ninaivumalars reflecting on the personal and social contributions of the deceased often carry contributions by friends from other communities such as the Chinese, Malay, Indian and others that are not narrowly bounded within the Ceylon Tamil community as in earlier ninaivumalars. Moreover, these contributions are often made in English, the common language across communities in recent years. Surprisingly Malay, which was the common language across communities in the pre-independence era does not seen to have been used in any of the ninaivumalars we have seen.
How has English Education in Singapore Shaped Ninaivumalars?
One of the most striking transformations that takes place in the transition of ninavumalars from Sri Lanka to Singapore is the increased use of English. With rare exceptions most ninaivumalars in Singapore contain varying proportions of English and Tamil. In the examples we have selected we see the extreme cases in the ninaivumalars of Arumugam and Mahadeva. The former is completely in Tamil and the latter completely in English. The other ninaivumalars stand in between with varying proportions of the two languages.
One explanation for these differences can be attributed to the ages of those for whom the ninavumalars are made. Those who are more elderly and migrated from Ceylon, are likely to have completely Tamil ninaivumalars. This may be confirmed by looking at the ninaivumalars of others in the same generation. But such examination shows that ninaivumalars even today continue to be produced in varying proportions of Tamil and English so that simple generational divide cannot completely explain such differences, even if earlier ninaivumalars tend to carry a larger proportion of material in Tamil rather than English.
It is probable that the proportion of Tamil and English in Singapore ninaivumalars is largely determined not by the ages or language proficiency of the deceased but by the intentions of those who produce such ninaivumalars, and the audience for whom they are intended. In the case of Arumugam, it is noteworthy that all his children were completely educated in the English medium to high levels of competence. But his memory book is completely in Tamil and describes his major contributions to Tamil education in Singapore. It can be expected that his friends in Singapore interested in his memory book as a way of preserving his achievements to education would also have it produced completely in the Tamil language. In short the language of the ninaivumalar is shaped not just by the deceased but by the audience for whom it is intended.
This audience perspective would also explain why the ninaivumalar of Mahadeva is completely in English. As the founding secretary-general of the Singapore National Union of Journalists the contributions to his ninaivumalar were made by people from different linguistic and cultural backgrounds all of whom could read and write in English. The intended audience for his memory book was also from such a background. Given his spiritual orientation which was not aligned with any specific religious tradition his memory book carried no religious hymns. Whatever spiritual maxims were included in it transcended specific religious commitments. This broad multicultural and multireligious horizon of the intended audience explains why his memory book was produced in English alone.
The audience perspective adopted above to explain singularly Tamil and singularly English memory books can also be extended to account for the mix of Tamil and English contributions in most Singapore memory books. In the case of Soocelaraj we find a memory book that is almost completely in English carrying many articles about his sporting achievements and contributions. The only Tamil piece is an article from a newspaper in 2001 with a header that reads:
It translates: “Having created many national sportsmen Soocelaraj passes away”.
One can speculate why this piece in Tamil is included. It shows that even readers of Tamil newspapers are followers of his sporting career. The back cover expresses acknowledgements to all relatives and friends who offered their condolences and comfort, assistance and prayers, in both English and Tamil. Although the deceased appears to have been a Hindu, given that the cover of the memory book carries the symbol ‘Aum’ in the Tamil letter, the absence of Thevarams in the book may explain why there is so little Tamil in it.
Indeed it is noteworthy that in most ninaivumalars the largest proportion of Tamil use appears in the inclusion of the Thirumurai and other religious hymns in Tamil. Apart from this most contributions, such as biographies and eulogies by family, relatives and friends, are in English. This is the case with Asai Kurugulasigamoney where the introductory tribute is in English followed by many religious hymns in Tamil. The same may be said of Vijiaratnam and Lingam. However in the case of Singam there are not only Tamil hymns but also Tamil eulogies written in his honour. This is not surprising since he was a well-known publisher of Tamil literary and religious texts.
The Role of Transliterations in Ninaivumalars
It is also noteworthy that in many ninaivumalars the Tamil hymns that appear are also transliterated into Roman alphabet at the same time. This is to facilitate readers who may want to sing them in Tamil but are unable to read the Tamil Brahmi script. We must presume that such readers are able to understand and speak oral Tamil. We can find examples of these in the ninaivumalars of Asai Kurugulasigamoney and Vijiaratnam. An example to illustrate this is given below: [take from AK or AV]
Although this occurs more rarely, we sometimes find that important hymns transliterated from Tamil into the Roman script are also translated into English. For example this is the case with the Sivapuranam hymn in Asai Kurugulasigamoney where its Tamil version is transliterated into the Roman alphabet and translated into English at the same time. We give it below:
[ take from AK]
It may come as a surprise that there is a third language that has some prominence in Singapore memory books. This is not any of the major spoken languages in Singapore such as Chinese or Malay, but Sanskrit – the sacral language of Hinduism. However the appearance of Sanskrit, generally in verses or hymns is not in the letters of the Devanagari script but transliterated into the Brahmi script of Tamil or the Roman alphabet of English. The example of the Guru Stotrum in Kurugulasigamoney illustrates this. It transliterated from Sanskrit into theTamil script, and transliterated again from Tamil script into the Roman alphabet. This is followed by a translation of the meaning of the Sanskrit mantra into English.
Significantly no translation of the Sanskrit mantra into Tamil is given. It illustrates the complex linguistic and cultural horizons that the readers of the ninaivumalar have to negotiate within the spiritual horizon this memory text defines. We give the example of this double transliterations and translation of the mantra below:
Significantly, aside from transliteration, there is no translation of the Sanskrit mantra into Tamil. This indicates a presumption that the ninaivumalar is intended for an audience all of whom understand English, and that there are no solely Tamil readers.
However in the same ninaivumalar the Sanskrit Mahamritunjaya mantra is not only transliterated into the Tamil and Roman alphabets, but its meaning is given in both Tamil and English. This is shown below: [take from AK]
Nonetheless other mantras in the same memory book are simply transliterated into the Tamil and the Roman alphabet without translations into Tamil or English. What is significant is that although Sanskrit mantras are both transliterated and translated they are never given in the Sanskrit alphabet. The only Sanskrit written text in the memory book is the symbol ‘Aum’ on the cover design.
What are the Prospects for Singapore Ninaivumalars in Future?
There is the perception today that the ninaivumalar is an outdated and declining tradition. The making of such books of memory has also become more difficult because busy modern working lives often lead families to shorten the ritual and prayer period to 16 days from the traditional 31, and sometimes even less. This makes putting together the memory book a more formidable task.
Furthermore, there is the perception that the book must carry prayers and biographies in Tamil – a language that is often not mastered at the requisite level of expertise by many in the younger generation of the Ceylon Tamil community who are more conversant in English. Although, in principle, one can produce ninaivumalars in English this is rare.
Despite such obstacles ninaivumalars remain a vibrant tradition within a large proportion of Ceylon Tamils in Singapore. Thus they continue to sustain individual memories, and the social memory of the community as a whole.
Although ninaivumalars were continually produced in the past, they were rarely preserved over a few generations. This has led to a significant loss of personal and social histories of the Ceylon Tamil community in Singapore. Moreover since these memory books are dispersed over many family-linked groups there is no opportunity to study them together as a whole. This precludes a deeper appreciation of the history that ninaivumalars carry. Archiving these books systematically in physical or online libraries would greatly contribute to rectifying such irretrievable loss.
I came to recognise this from my own experiences of making ninaivumalars not only for both my parents but also two elder brothers. Since these were spread over a period of twenty-six years I could see how changing social conditions and changing generations came to shape the construction of such books. The earliest book for my father was completely done in the Tamil language, and as time went on the last book for my eldest brother was completely in English. These changes made me realise the importance of ninaivumalars in documenting personal lives and social transformations within the community. It led me to consider seriously the possibility of archiving these books.
In late 2016 I began conducting research into the ninaivumalar traditions in Singapore and Malaysia by inviting friends and relatives to share with me ninaivumalars that they had in their possession. The enthusiastic response from those I approached also encouraged me to solicit ninaivumalars from other countries including Sri Lanka, the United Kingdom, and Australia. Again there was great interest in my project. These collections led me to begin a monographic study of the ninaivumalar tradition across the world. In April 2019 after I was invited to head of the discussion forum of the Centre for Singapore Tamil Culture I made a presentation of the ninaivumalar tradition to its members. I was subsequently invited to write an essay on the social history of Sri Lankan Tamils in Singapore reflected in their memorial books.
My studies have led me to conclude that it is imperative to build a online ninaivumalar archive that would carry electronic copies of these books. Moreover physical copies of such ninaivumalars should also be kept within libraries in the countries in which they are produced. These are documents of historical significance to the Ceylon Tamil community in Singapore.