CHAPTER 4
CULTURAL AND INTELLECTUAL
LIFE OF ARMENIANS IN INDIA
Armenian
Scholars in India
During the 17th-18th centuries, there were also Armenian historians and scholars
in India. Here in India manuscripts were copied and translation works were carried
out. Armenian manuscripts on Indian and Armenian history and culture have been
written in Surat, Calcutta, Madras, Bombay etc.
A valuable collection of manuscripts running into several hundred pages on India
and Indo-Armenian relations (17th -18th centuries) is in the British Museum.
These were written in Surat, Calcutta, New Julfa etc. during 1733-1749. These
manuscripts reached London in a very unordinary way. In 1764 Admiral Griffit
confiscated an Armenian merchant-vessel as ‘a property of enemy’. All the property
on board, including the manuscripts, were sent to London. Afterwards the British
Court justified the Admiral’s action, and the manuscripts remained in London.
The Armenian sources on the history of India assume particular value. Here we
have in mind those authors who resided in India or wrote their works while living
in this country. Manuscripts of these authors are preserved in Matenadaran,
Institute of Ancient Manuscripts in Yerevan. There one can find a brief text
about Brahmins where the author describes them as honest, industrious and peaceful
people. There are works on India’s geography, ethnography.
In Matenadaran there are also books on medicine, astronomy and other subjects.
Highly valuable is A Textbook on Sanskrit written in the 18th century. All these
records bespeak the cultural relations of the two peoples.
Armenians were coming to India not only for trade and acquiring wealth. In this
unfamiliar and mysterious world Armenian merchants, besides material interests,
were seeking other interests, too. An interesting example is of Thomas Khojamall,
seafarer and prosperous merchant of the 18th century. He was fluent in Persian,
Hindi and English languages, and he knew the histories of Armenia and India
very well. Khojamall was such an influential person that he went to England
to protest against despotic rule of Wansittard, Viceroy of India. He stayed
a few years in London and was able to achieve conviction of Wansittard and got
500,000 Dirham for his complain.88
Armenian literature had its own place in the interests of Thomas Khojamall.
Despite being so busy he decided to write the history of India.
Naturally he could not start such an important and serious work without proper
information. With great difficulty Khojamall could obtain permission to work
in the Royal Archives of Shah Alam for twelve days. In his work he also used
charts and atlases, stories of participants and witnesses of those events.
Thomas Khojamall concluded
the History of India in 1768.
The History of India consists of two parts and Appendices. In the first part
there are chapters on: the Christianity of Malabar (from ancient times to the
year 1750), the Armenian and Assyrian communities of Cochin, the religions of
India, the twelve holy rivers and twenty four holy lakes, and the chronology
of Indian Kings.
The second part begins with an introductory chapter as to how and when the Europeans
began to penetrate into India. The next two chapters speak on Anglo-French rivalry
in Southern India, Deccan and Karnatik. The subsequent chapters dwell upon the
events in Bengal in 1756-1760, during the Nawabship of Siraj-ud-Dowla, the “Black
Hole” incident, the events in 1760-1764, about Nawab of Bengal Mir Qasim and
his Commander-in-Chief Gorgin Khan, the heroic struggle of the people of India
against the British. It should be mentioned that this last part takes up nearly
one-third of the writing.
The Appendix tells about the famous Armenian political figure and poet Mirza-Zul-Qarnain.
The author interprets this entire semi-legendary story in the light of historical
facts.
Regarding the “Black Hole” incident it should be stated that no scholar can
give specific figures about the dead British prisoners. According to the history,
when Siraj-ud-Dowla captured Fort William in Calcutta, on 20th June, 1757 he
threw the British soldiers in a small dungeon (18 feet by 14 feet) of the Fort.
Next morning many people died because of insufficient air and space. This incident
is named in the history as “Black Hole” incident.
One of the survivors of this incident, J.Z.Holwell stated that the prisoners
numbered 146 and only 15 survived.
A reputed historian, J.H.Little, in the journal Bengal: Past and Present of
July-September, 1915, stated that Holwell’s story was a ‘gigantic hoax’, since
none of the Muslim historians of Bengal had made any reference to such an important
event in their works.
Thomas Khojamall in his History of India mentions that “more than 15 soldiers
died in one night”. Given Khojamall’s negative attitude toward Siraj-ud-dowla,
he was supposed to present an exaggerated account of this event. But since he
had given such reduced figures, it can be assumed that the “Black Hole” event
was blown out of proportion by Holwell.
There is another Armenian source which states that Holwell exaggerated the figures.
That is a letter of a wealthy Armenian merchant Emin to his son Joseph Emin
in London:
“The wicked Suraj-ud-Dowlah
came with a vast army, destroyed almost 40 innocent English gentlemen in one
night in the Black Hole. Calcutta was overset by him. For my share, I have lost
16,000 rupees.”
A wealthy merchant, having close economic relations with the East India Company
and losing Rs.16,000, naturally could not speak about his enemy without exaggerating
the facts. But the figure given by him is much less than 131.
Unfortunately the original copy of The History of India has not been accessible.
The detailed description of the contents of the book was published in Calcutta
in the Armenian magazine Shtemaran in 1822.
Another Armenian historian in India in the end of the 18th century was Hakob
Simonian who wrote The History of Life and Activities of Brave Hyder Ali from
the day of his Birth till his Death. From his book it is obvious that Simonian
was quite familiar to Hyder Ali, many times spoke to him and even tried to use
his links for the interests of the Armenians. He writes:
"In 1778, in the month
of December I went to the Palace to see Nawab Bahadur with the intention to
obtain from him a Firman about permitting the Armenians to trade freely in his
country. There I was shown great favours from Hyder.
Nawab Bahadur promised to give the Armenians all what I requested. Besides the
permission to trade, I also requested him to free my nation from any taxes".
Armenian scholars who thoroughly examined The History conclude that the author
basically used his own personal observations, diaries, stories of witnesses
etc. He is the witness and sometimes the participant of events in the period
of 1761-1784 (till the death of Hyder Ali). The History is all the more valuable
for the author has not confined himself to a mere description of the private,
intimate life of Harder but has outlined it as against the background of the
political and military events in the history of Mysore during 1762-1782. The
History speaks very little about the history of Indo-Armenian relations but
even from that one can assume that the Armenians of Mysore enjoyed the patronage
of Hyder and local population.
Author says that the objective to write such a book was "to give the Armenians
the spirit of sympathy, love and respect not only towards Hyder Ali but to all
Indian nation". The book is written in ancient Armenian. The author was fluent
in Persian, English, French, Kannada besides Armenian.
The fate of the original copy is uncertain. However, the book was wholly published
in the journal Azdarar in Madras in 1794-1795 by Rev. Shumavon.
Mesrovb David Thaliadian
has been a great Armenian scholar in India in the 19th century. He was an “erudite
professor, a profound scholar, an eminent poet and an author of great merit”,
as is written on a marble mural tablet in the Armenian Church in Calcutta.89
In 1841 Thaliadian published the History of Ancient India in ancient Armenian
language. In 1846 he published Annals of the Antiquities of Armenia.
In 1845 he formed
the Araratian Society, the aim of which was to publish works in Armenian language.
In two years (1845-1847) he published almost ten works. Almost twenty
years (1823-1845) Thaliadian studied the manuscript of Khojamall's History
of India, compared with the English and local sources, edited it. In 1848 he
published it periodically in the monthly journal Azgaser.
The Araratian society had a journal Azgaser (Patriot) which was published from
1845 to 1848 and from 1848-1852 it was named Azgaser Araratian.
A born idealist, Thaliadian
was, all the days of his stormy life, a confirmed nationalist and a patriotic
scholar. He was the zealous standard bearer and indefatigable champion
of the glorious culture and the unique literature of ancient Armenia.
Speaking about the Armenian scholars we have to mention also Mesrovb Jacob
Seth whose life's mission was to record the history of the Armenians in India.
For more than forty years he travelled all over India, from Lahore to Madras
and from Surat to Dhaka to record the history about his compatriots in India
as complete as possible. During his trips he experienced numerous hardships
because of the nature of his work and the limited funds at his disposal. Under
great physical difficulties and discomfort he succeeded in rescuing from oblivion
thousands of old Armenian epitaphs from deserted cemeteries and churchyards.
M. Seth displayed extraordinary aptitude for and interest in historical and
antiquarian research, and for many decades engaged himself energetically in
the study of old manuscripts, letters, epitaphs and memorial tablets in churches
and cemeteries throughout India. The result of his work was a significant volume
– Armenians in India, which was first published in 1937.
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