|
Home
Up
Introduction
Acknowledgements
300th Anniversary of the Armenian Church 2008
Armenian Graves In India, Hong Kong & UK
Armenian Graves in Singapore and Malaysia
Armenian Graves in Australia
Surnames Directly Linked to my Family
My Direct Chater Ancestors
Chater's unrelated to my family
My Chater Family Bible
Part Index of the names at the IOR
The Andaman Island Photographs
Wills
Lady Chater
Sir Catchick Paul Chater
The Chater Collection
| |
[ Up ] [ Agra ] [ Bombay ] [ Calcutta Nazareth ] [ Calcutta St. Gregory's ] [ Calcutta Tangra ] [ Chinsurah ] [ Dacca ] [ Delhi ] [ Gwalior ] [ Lahore ] [ Madras ] [ Rangoon ] [ Saidabad ] [ Surat ] [ Lost Treasures ]
Have
you ever wondered what happened to the contents of the
Armenian churches of India as they slowly, and painfully
were closed or abandoned? The precious altar pieces,
vestments and even the books from their libraries? Of
course it is almost impossible to find out now, but one man,
Mesrovb Seth, who spent forty years of his life researching
Armenians in India was able to pick up many a small piece of
information here and there as he travelled around India
gathering material for his books. I list below the
snippets of information Seth discovered on some of the lost
treasures of the Armenian churches in India.
Surat
-
In March 1903, we picked up in a second-hand book
shop in Kalbadevi Road, Bombay, a very rare Armenian book, printed
at Amsterdam in 1669. It had originally belonged to the now
ruined Armenian church at Surat, according
to a colophon (Hishatakaran) at the end of the book, in the
handwriting of the priest in charge of the Surat Church
-
When the
Surat Church was finally closed
down in 1861 because there were no Armenian community left there,
the Wardens of Bombay, had all the sacred
books, vessels and vestments of Surat brought to Bombay for
preservation there. Amongst these was a manuscript Bible in the
Armenian language which was written at Surat in 1658, there was also
an old chasuble (shoorjar) belonging to the Surat Church on which the year
1782 was beautifully embroidered in gold thread.
Madras
-
In October 1905, we picked up in a second-hand
book shop in Madras, some rare Armenian
works, the productions of the different Armenian presses which had
existed in that old city between the year 1772 and 1812.
Whether they came from the Church library or from some private
collection, we cannot say, as they bore no names of the original
owners.
-
Over a 50 year period we have picked up many rare
Armenian publications in the second-hand book shops of
Calcutta, including
amongst others, a copy of Father Jacob Villotte's "New Latin -
Armenian Dictionary" (Dictionarium Novum Latino-Armenium), printed
in Rome in 1714, and a copy of the Latin translation of "Moses
Chorenensi's History of Armenia," (Moses Chorenensis Historiae
Armeniaca) by the Whiston Brothers, printed with the Armenian
(classical) text and a map of ancient Armenia, in 1736, at London.
-
The
Armenian Church at Madras was once well known for possessing a large
number of rare and valuable manuscripts and books. In April 1904 Mesrovb Seth made his first visit to the church in Madras and made the
following observation.
"Having arrived on
the Saturday, we went to the church service the following day, which was
very poorly attended owing to the paucity of Armenians in that city.
We paid our respects to the priest in charge and he received us in the
room where the so called Church Library was located. As a
bibliophile, if not a bibliomaniac, we expected to find a large number
of rare manuscripts and a complete collection of the works which had
been issued from the different Armenian presses at Madras, between the
years 1772 and 1812, but we were sorely disappointed when we saw no
manuscripts and only a few torn and dilapidated copies of "Hisoos Vordi"
(Jesus the Son) which was printed in Rev. Arathoon Shumavon's press in
1792."
It seems the once beautiful and well stocked library of the church was
completely devoid of its past historical content which had never had an
inventory done of its unique collection.
Gwalior
-
Around 1907 six baskets containing a large number
of Armenian manuscripts, books and pontifical (Kondaka) belonging to
the Armenian church at Gwalior, which was
erected by Colonel Jacob Petrus, the Brigadier General of Scindias'
Army, were sold as waste paper for six Rupees only, by a descendant
of the Colonel who told us about it at Agra in October 1919.
Armenian College, Calcutta
-
At the Armenian College in Calcutta, the Araratian Library, which had
been founded on 7th April 1828 had grown significantly by 1843 when
it contained over 1000 precious and rare Armenian manuscripts.
In January 1890, the late Professor Frederick Conybeare, a
distinguished Armenist of international reputation, paid a visit to
the Academy, accompanied by his accomplished wife, who was a
daughter of the world-renowned orientalist, Max Muller. He
wishes to see the college library, expecting to find some rare
Armenian manuscripts, as he had found in Armenia, during a tour in
1888. We happened to be present in the college at that time,
and acted as a cicerone, not knowing who the strange visitor, with
long hair, was. We showed him the remnants of the once famous
"Araratian Library" and placed in his hands an Armenian work,
printed by Jacob Shameer at Madras, in 1772, thinking we were
showing him a rate publication, but he said that he had seen it
already in the Madras Armenian Church Library. He then desired
to see the manuscripts, and was visibly disappointed on learning
that they had disappeared long ago.
The Araratian Library having ceased to exist with the mysterious
disappearance of the numerous books and manuscripts in the Armenian,
English, Latin, Greek, French, Dutch, Persian, Chinese and other
languages, the necessity of a school library was keenly felt, and
this want was supplied by the late Mr. A.S. Mackertich, ex pupil of
the Academy, who in 1909, laid the foundations of a new library at
the college by presenting some large and strongly made teakwood
almirahs, with a large number of English books, including some rare
historical works. At the request of the donor, we compiled the
library catalogue, which was printed and circulated with an appear
for further presentations
-
Hovhannes (John) Sookias, an ex student of the Armenian College,
recalls....
"Another memorable day, a sad one, was the exit of the great
classical Armenian champion and historian, Mr. Mesrovb J. Seth, the
author of "Armenians in India" when he left the Armenian College in
1937. His sad parting with the students and the incineration of
hundreds of his three part library of English and classical Armenian
text books. Young Hovhannes remembers how the boys looked on
helplessly and with youthful grief and astonishment as the precious
heaps of classical Armenian literature were consumed by the flames.
He is still not sure who it was that ordered these books to be
burnt, nor whether the books belonged to Mr. Seth personally or to
the college library, or to the church. But they certainly pertained
to the nation and were heedlessly and deliberately destroyed.
However, Hovhannes recollects: "Some of us youngsters were
emboldened discretely to rescue a few of these books which stood us
in very good stead in later years in passing the difficult subject
of classical Armenian in our Matriculation Examinations. Not long
after this tragic holocaust Mr. Clarke, the schools' principal,
collapsed in the Calcutta 'Kennel Club' and died, and was
subsequently cremated at the Circular Road electric crematorium. We
boys somehow associated those two conflagrations. The books had
seemed almost human to us".
Calcutta
-
Agah
Owenjohn Jacob Gerakh, sent some valuable sacred vestments for use
in the Blessed Virgin Mary Church at Julfa. These were sold by
public auction in Julfa (around 1900) by order of Archbishop Sahak
Ayvadian. They were purchased by an Armenian resident in Julfa and
were then brought out to Calcutta for disposal. Eight rare pieces
consisting of chasubles (shoorjar) helmets (sagavart) and amices (vakaz)
were purchased jointly by Mr. J.C. Galstaun and Mr. A. Stephen and
were presented by them to the
Armenian church of Nazareth
where they are carefully preserved among the valuable sacred
vestments of the church. Question: What
happened to these? They are no longer at the Holy Nazareth
Church.
Dacca
-
The Armenian church at Dhaka (Dacca) also
once had a small valuable collection of books. From the
minutes of a meeting of the "Friends of the Armenian Church in
Dhaka", it can be noted that "a file (found in 1986) recorded that
there was a catalogue of 74 Armenian titles together with their
Latin transcription in the church library. When we looked at
the books, we found that most of them were worm-eaten but the older
17th and 18th century ones were in better shape than the newer ones
because paper used to be made from cotton rags rather than wood pulp
combined with softening chemicals. These same chemicals
accelerate the deterioration of paper. Amongst the older books
are three volumes comprising section of the New Testament in
Armenian, dating back to the 17th century. The newer ones
include an almost complete edition of the "Encyclopaedia Britannica"
the first volumes of which were published in 1871." As far as
can be ascertained, the books remain in Dhaka in their unpreserved
state and quite probably not much left of them.
Saidabad
-
In the library of the
Armenian church in Calcutta, used to be a
beautiful manuscript copy of a collection of 306 hymn, canticles and
melodies composed in ancient Armenian by the Fathers of the Armenian
Church from time to time. From the title page it could be seen that it
was compiled by Petrus Amirjan, a chorister, but the date and place of
the compilation was not shown. From the colophon (the symbol or
emblem that is printed on a book and represents a publisher or
publisher's imprint) that this copy was made at
Saidabad from the
original of Petrus Amirjan, by a young Armenian, named Arakiel, the son
of Mahtesy Johanness, who laboured for 4 months with great devotion and
completed his self-imposed task on the 17th August 1757.
The colophon indicates that the paper was supplied by Martyrose, the son
of Arathoon and the cost of the binding was borne by Petrus, the son of
Rev. Nicholas, the pious and zealous warden of the Saidabad Armenian
Church. Further evidence indicated that Carapiet, the son of Mathew,
helped the copyist by reading the original, thereby enabling him to
revise the copy. The volume, again according to the colophon, was
presented by the scribe, Arakiel Mahtesy Johanness to the Armenian
church at Saidabad, on the 3rd August 1759 in memory of all
those mentioned above who had participated in its production.
The manuscript itself was composed of 320 quarto pages, measuring 10” x
7 ˝ “. It was beautifully written, like print, with a reed pen on thick
hand-made glazed paper, in jet black Indian ink, with the headings and
the first letters of the lines in red ink. In the 1930’s Mesvrob Seth
noted in his book “Armenians in India” that “although written 180
years ago, it is in a very fair state of preservation, despite the damp
climate of Bengal”. Whatever became of it?
Singapore
-
A number of items went
missing from St Gregory's in Singapore during the war. They
included: the Persian carpets, pews, crystal chandeliers, the
priest's vestments, valuable paintings, the Bible printed in Venice
in 1686, hymnbooks from the 1850s, prayer books printed in 1846 in
Constantinople and some old gold and silver vessels
|
