THAMBOOSAMY PILLAY IN MALAYA

In a Jeeva Nadi reading at Kallar Ashram, Agathiyar addressed five questions put forward by Surendaran Selvaratnam. Besides his career and personal life, Surendaran had asked to know about the history of the mysterious samadhi at the foothills of Batu Caves in Malaysia purportedly said to be that of one Mauna Guru Siddhar. Agathiyar explained that the saint in samadhi, was a devout devotee or bakta of Lord Murugan and had traveled to Batu Caves going into samadhi at the present spot. People used to call him Mauna Samy.

Agathiyar says, "Having performed tavam or austerities in the Himalayan range, a saint traveled through Burma to the limestone hills of Malaya. He installed my Guru (Lord Muruga), performed further austerities or tavam and gained Mukthi. He maintained silence for years and attained Siddhi. The locals called him Mauna Samy". Watch the video and audio recording of the reading at http://agathiyarvanam.blogspot.my/2015/03/satsang-with-siddha-heartbeat.html

Saravanan Palanisamy too did some research regarding Mauna Samy and his samadhi. See Saravanan's post at http://arulgnanajyothi.blogspot.com/2015/01/mouna-guru-sitthar-of-batu-caves.html

The Batu Caves is now a famous tourist attraction in Malaysia, with travel agencies bringing in busloads of tourist to the venue. The locals keep fit by running up the 272 steps that lead to the cave temple while devotees come out in droves to pay their homage and respect to Lord Muruga to witness and celebrate the annual Thaipusam festival held here.  

In 1878 an American zoologist by the name of William Temple Hornaday while collecting specimens in the limestone hills in the vicinity of Batu Caves, discovered this particular cave and came out in public to reveal about its existence. Batu Caves became popular after then. 14 years after its discovery, Kayaroganam Thamboosamy Pillay built a temple at the spot, in 1891. Pillai was captivated by the existence of a spear or vel-shaped entrance to the cave. He had a statue of Lord Muruga installed then. The Thaipusam festival was started the following year in 1892, and has since then become an annual event.

Pillay was a man of great stature who went all the way out to serve the Indians in the region. He was both a philanthropists, and a guardian of the Indian culture and language. He was soon to become a leader among the Indians in British Malaya.

Many years ago the English daily The Star carried a center spread on the monetary, structural and cultural contributions of K Thamboosamy Pillay, Loke Yew (a Chinese-born, business magnate, and philanthropist, regarded as the richest man in British Malaya during his time and who played a significant role in the growth of Kuala Lumpur) and Yap Kwan Seng (the last Chinese kapitan or appointed chiefs or headmen of the various ethnic communities during the British colonial rule in Kuala Lumpur) that left me stunned and amazed.

Pillay who lived from 1850 to 1902, although was born in Singapore spent most of his years in Malaya (present day Malaysia). His parents had migrated from Tamilnadu. Pillay studied at the Raffles Institution, the oldest center of learning in Singapore, founded in 1823 by Sir Stamford Raffles. After his studies he joined the famed law firm Woods and Davidson as an interpreter. Slowly he rose to the level of an assistant to James Guthrie Davidson. Pillay gained Davidson's trust and confidence.  In 1872, Davidson consented to taking up the position of the first British Resident to Selangor in Malaya where trouble in the form of Klang war was brewing. In 1875, Davidson invited along Pillay, now 25 years of age. Pillay was appointed the chief accountant (or clerk) at the treasury in Kuala Lumpur. 

When their was a shortage of manual workers to work on the Malayan railways and public works sector, Pillai was sent to India by the British government in Malaya to source immigrants to work in these fields. Noticing the convergence of hundreds of Indians from India at Kuala Lumpur, Pillay wanted to initiate a place of worship for them. He then built a temple for them beside a river, at the site of the present day Bangunan Pertanian, according to Malaysia Nanban. Pillay had to relocate the temple when the railway authorities wanted the land for their railway shed, promising to provide an alternative site for the temple. According to http://www.kuala-lumpur.ws, its stated that "originally situated near the Kuala Lumpur Railway Station, the temple was moved to its present site in 1885." 

With the consent of the then His Highness the Sultan of Selangor, the temple was relocated to Jalan Bandar, (present day Jalan Tun HS Lee). The Sultan laid the foundation stone for the temple at the same time declaring it as land allocated for the Indian community. In 1888 the thatched roof temple was replaced with one in stone. Pillay became the very first chairperson of the Devastanam. 

According to wikipedia.org, "The Sri Maha Mariamman Temple, was founded by Thamboosamy in 1873 and was initially used as a private shrine by the Pillai family. The family threw open the temple doors to the public in the late 1920s and eventually handed the management of the temple over to a board of trustees."

Besides building the said Sri Maha Mariamman temple, and taking its realm, Pillay added credit or punya balam by allowing a Shiva temple to be built on his land in Klang. Later he handed over the land to the temple trustees.

Wikipedia.org mentions that he together with Yap Kwan Seng contributed "a sizable amount of money to the building fund of St. Mary's Cathedral, Kuala Lumpur in 1893." Yap Kwan Seng's contribution and "his philanthropic deeds extended beyond Malaya and it is said that a year before he died in 1901, he donated the princely sum of ten thousand dollars towards famine relief in India, a gesture which surely qualifies as Malaysia’s first-ever effort at international humanitarian aid."

It is interesting to note that Yap Kwan Seng contributed towards the name of a place now popularly called Little India in Kuala Lumpur. Wikipedia.org states "As a businessman, he (Yap Kwan Seng) foresaw an increased demand for bricks in fast-growing Kuala Lumpur and established a kiln in a district which came to be called Brickfields, a name by which it is still known today."

In 1880 Pillai left the government sector to venture into his private businesses.  Pillay became a very successful industrialist. When dredging of tin ore was a lucrative business in Malaya, Pillay went into partnership with Loke Yew, another Chinese industrialist, to become the first Indian miner. He started the New Tin Mining company in Rawang in collaboration with Loke Yew. 

Pillay was also a government contractor. He was appointed as a justice of peace by the Malayan government, the first indian to have been honoured with such a prestigious title.

Pillay was one of those who instituted the famed Victoria Institution, having roped in Loke Yew and Yap Kwan Seng along. The Sultan of Selangor and the then British Resident WH Treacher donated towards their cause. According to https://en.wikipedia.org, "The school is named after Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom, and was established by the British to commemorate her golden jubilee."

"In the 1880s, Raffles Institution (RI) in Singapore flourished as an outstanding school. Some prominent community leaders, including the Sultan Abdul Samad, Kapitan Cina (Chinese Captain) of Kuala Lumpur, Yap Kwan Seng, towkay (or business magnate) Loke Yew, and Thamboosamy Pillay proposed to set up a similar school modeled after RI to provide a premier English-medium education for boys in Kuala Lumpur. With the support of the British Resident of Selangor, the foundation stone of the Victoria Institution was laid in 1893. The school opened in July 1894." 

Pillay past away in 1902 in Singapore while attending the board meeting of the Selangor (Singapore) Turf Club. His body was brought to the port at Klang by ship.

Several roads in British Malaya where named after him, including a Tamil school in Jalan Ipoh in Kuala Lumpur.

This article is based on and inspired by Tamil Daily Malaysia Nanban's edition of Gnayiru Nanban, on 27 September 2015 and the said Star Publications article.

For a more personal recollection of Pillay read http://www.thestar.com.my/News/Community/2013/11/29/Shedding-more-light-on-Thamboosamys-legacy/

Other Sources:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/K._Thamboosamy_Pillay
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Temple_Hornaday
http://eresources.nlb.gov.sg/newspapers/Digitised/Article/stweekly18910211.2.49.aspx
http://www.kuala-lumpur.ws/attractions/sri-mahamariamman-temple.htm#
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loke_Yew
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yap_Kwan_Seng
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Hood_Treacher

A bust erected to commemorate and remember Pillay who built the temple at Batu Caves. In the background is the more recent statue of Lord Muruga. Photo courtesy of http://borneotip.blogspot.my/2011/05/batu-caves.html