From the traders who arrived in 1824 with a ledger and a low desk, to a registered association of a thousand families.
Who we are, where we came from, and how the community took root in Singapore.
Nagarathars, also called Nattukottai Chettiars, hail from the Pandya Kingdom of Tamil Nadu. The first Chettiars are documented in Singapore in 1824, and they built the credit system the port ran on.
Colonial banks lent to trading houses. The Chettiars lent to everyone else — merchants, hawkers, labourers and planters with neither capital nor collateral.
They worked from kittangi — Tamil for warehouse — on Market and Chulia Streets: office by day, quarters by night. At their height, seven housed some 300 to 400 firms.
The moneylending trade has passed into history. Some 1,000 families here now work in the civil service, banking, education, technology and construction.
How the association came to be, in the community's own words.
Early 1800s
Arrival and trade
Nagarathars who came to trade in the early 1800s established kittangis (warehouses) in keeping with community custom and carried on their business. The contribution our forefathers made to the growth and development of Singapore is worthy of honour.
1859 & 1925
The temples
They founded the Arulmigu Thendayuthapani Temple on Tank Road in 1859 and the Arulmigu Layan Sithi Vinayagar Temple on Keong Saik Road in 1925, performing great service so that Tamil and Saivism would flourish, and so that the Indian community and our own community would grow in Singapore.
Late 1940s
Families settle
In the late 1940s they brought their families to Singapore, and excelled not only in business but in education, leaving their mark and earning distinction in many fields.
1980s
Nagarathar Mandram
Standing as an example of the saying that living together brings manifold good, the Nagarathars founded an organisation called the Singapore Nagarathar Mandram to preserve and honour their culture and traditions.
2003
NAS registered
That organisation became the Nagarathar Association Singapore (NAS), registered in Singapore in 2003. The Chettiar Temple Society (CTS), which manages the Singapore Nagarathar temples, gave the Association a room within the temple premises, and also provides the temple halls free of charge for the Association's functions. In the same way, the Nagarathar Association assists in all the temple's functions.
Today
1,000 members
From a small community of 40 to 50 people in the 1940s, it stands today in Singapore as a large community with 1,000 registered members — by the grace of God.
We pray to Arulmigu Layan Sithi Vinayagar and Arulmigu Thendayuthapani that our community may continue to flourish, perform many acts of virtue, and rise in health and prosperity.
The aim and objective of the association shall be as follows.
Two temples anchor Nagarathar religious life in Singapore, and both remain places of daily worship and community gathering.
15 Tank Road, Singapore
Founded 1859. Home of the annual Thaipusam procession.
73 Keong Saik Road, Singapore
Founded 1925.
Both temples are managed by the community through the Chettiars' Temple Society (CTS).
Visit STT/SLSVT Temple WebsiteThe clan temples and ancestral villages that every Nagarathar family traces itself through.
Every Nagarathar family belongs to one of the nine ancestral clan temples (kovil) in Chettinad. Each kovil forms a pirivu — a division of the community — and the larger ones are further divided into ut-pirivu.
Street names and public art that carry the community's name.
From Chettiars to Financiers
A bronze sculpture by Chern Lian Shan, installed in 2002 as part of the Singapore Tourism Board's People of the River series. The seated figure at the low desk is a Chettiar moneylender, working from a woven mat as the kittangi offices on Market and Chulia Streets did. Beside him stand a Chinese clearing-house clerk and a modern trader — the trade passing from one era of finance to the next.
Singapore River, beside the Asian Civilisations Museum at Empress Place — a short walk downriver from Clarke Quay.
Roads Named After Chettiars
After Annamalai Chettiar, philanthropist and founder of the Nattukottai Chettiar trade association in the 1920s.
In Potong Pasir, after the Chettiar landowner and businessman.
After the Chettiar merchant Arnasalam Chetty.
After the Chettiar merchant Muthuraman Chetty.
After the Chettiar merchant Narayanan Chetty.
Documentaries on the Nagarathars of Singapore.
