CHAPTER 4
CULTURAL AND INTELLECTUAL LIFE OF ARMENIANS IN INDIA

        Many historical facts, historical monuments show that Armenian creative mind implanted such cultural values on the Indian soil that some of them came out of the limits of national culture and found their place in the Indian culture. Series of construction work in Malabar done by Armenians have entered the history of Indian architectural culture. Mention should be made of Armenian port in Calcutta, Marmalong bridge, churches, chapels, houses.
        The works of Armenian artisans were very famous. They were mostly implementing different orders of merchants for internal and external markets. In the museums of Armenia, Russia and England one can find the wonderful works of the Armenian craftsmen of India, such as the throne for Catholicos of All the Armenians, the throne for Russian Tzar Alexey Mikhaylovich, the silver model of Taj Mahal, carpets, jewellery, craftswork and silver, wooden and ivory covers for books. In the Museum of Echmiatsin (Armenia) one can see wonderful handworks, which were presented to the Holy See by the Indo-Armenians during the 18th-19th centuries. Among them are silk curtains with paintings from the Bible, different table covers embroidered with golden, silver threads and pearls, silk and woollen carpets. There is a reference of the fact that the Steve F.          English jewellery company gave an order to the Armenian jewellers to make the model of the temple Buddha-Gaya as they were considered to be highly qualified masters.⁸⁴
        Indo-Armenian community had its representatives in the sphere of Indian literature. Mention should be made of Mirza-Zul-Qarnian, a prominent poet and politician, and Sarmad, a philosopher-poet who were very renowned all over India (details in Chapter 2).
        Among the Indo-Armenians there were people who were engaged in music, performing, fine arts. Some Armenians left for Germany, Italy and other European countries to get training in opera singing, piano and violin playing.
It should be mentioned that the first Indian classic singer to be recorded on the gramophone record was Gauhar Jan (her mother was Armenian, father was English). She was “the most famous, most charismatic and perhaps the wealthiest female singer/dancer at the turn of the century”.⁸⁵  Gauhar Jan had a mellifluous voice and was well-versed in all forms of light classical music such as thumri, dadra, kajri, chaiti, jhoola ghazal and bhajan.⁸⁶  She could sing on twenty languages and dialects. Gauhar Jan’s mother was also a classical singer/dancer who started her career after divorcing her Christian husband and adopting Islam. She was known as Malika Jan. Malika Jan was also writing poems in Urdu.⁸⁷

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