|
[ Home ] [ Graves Main Page ] [ Introduction ] [ Acknowledgements ] [ Armenians of Iraq ] [ Armenian Inhabitants of Calcutta 1830 ] [ Armenian Census Calcutta 1846 ] [ Armenian/Indian research publications ] [ Armenians, Colonies & Churches in India ] [ Armenian Church Calcutta - Inventory ] [ Armenian Lost Treasures in India ] [ Armenian Lost Rare Publications in India ] [ Historical Snippets ] [ 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 and Inventories ] [ Lady Chater ] [ Tribute to Captain Chater Paul Chater ]
Sir Catchick Paul Chater
| |
[ Home ]
Lost Treasure
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
editions 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.
-
The Armenian College library never recovered from
the huge loss of these unique and priceless works and near 50 years
later in 1937 more unique and priceless works were to go missing,
but this time at the hands of the very students they were educating
in an act of deliberate vandalism. An ex student, Hovhannes
(John) Sookias recalled the dispicable incident to Fr. Aramais
Mirzaian for his book "Armenians: A Pilgrim People in Tierra
Australia". Hovhannes said: "Another memorable day, a sad
one, was the exit of the great classical Armenian champion and
historian, Mr. Mesrope 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. The boys
looked on helplessly and with youthful grief and astonishment as the
precious heaps of classical Armenian literature were consumed by the
flames. Hovhannes was 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." Hovhannes continued: "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. It was a tragic holocaust [of literature]; the
books had seemed almost human to us.".
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
Has my
website been helpful in your research?
Would you consider making a donation to the upkeep and maintenance please?
Click
on the following SECURE link
|