THIS year marks exactly 85 years since the Clairwood Tamil Mathar Sungum was established.

Its founder Dixon Pillay, who died at the age of 107, founded the association (sungum) around 1940. The association remained a cultural society of Hindu women.

According to Neelan Govender and Viroshen Chetty from Rebel Rabble Publishing, the objectives of the association were focused on promoting Tamil language, culture and heritage.

According to the book published by Rebel Rabble Publishing, titled Legends of the Tide, Pillay was a Hindu reformer and community leader who was a renowned cultural leader, women liberator and introduced innovative practices to suit South African conditions.

This association was aimed at promoting Tamil language, culture and heritage.

Also read: Clairwood Hospital’s health journey

The members of the association included many wives and mothers of the fisherfolk and labourers who lived in the south of Durban.

The association raised funds to build the Sir Kumar Reddi Road Tamil School and the Jacobs Road Arumuga Temple, completed in 1950.

When the teacher of the temple (Gurukul) passed away suddenly in 1955, she defied convention and assumed the role of Guru-mather and started performing religious functions.

This was a role previously assigned to men. It was an unprecedented move, which was surprisingly uncontested by the male worshippers.

Before her reformations, Tamil widows were barred from initiating prayers.

In a joint statement, Govender and Chetty said, “Widows had to remove their red marital dot and wear ash on the forehead. They had to give up their finery and wear simple white clothing, had to withdraw from society and could not remarry. Dixon and the association encouraged widows to continue wearing their red dot, finery and normal clothes.

“When she was widowed, she continued her role as Guru-mather and featured prominently on the stage at Sungum weddings.”

She introduced the Sungum wedding – this was a wedding that was streamlined to just the core religious ceremony and a simple meal and was a fraction of the cost and time of a regular Tamil wedding.

She went on to build the Platt Drive Temple in Isipingo Rail and the Arutpa Kazhagam Centre in Lenny Naidu Drive in Bayview, Chatsworth.

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