The Hindu, India
December 13, 2004
WHY IN CALCUTTA?
BURIED IN the Armenian Church’s well-kept, well-shaded cemetery on
Armenian Street is the Rev. Harathun Shimavonian, who died in 1824.
Having lived a hundred years, his longevity itself made him a
noteworthy figure. But as his tombstone marked by an open book
attests, he was even more noteworthy for a signal contribution he
made to the Armenian nation, at the time scattered in many parts of
the world – including Madras and Calcutta. That contribution was “the
first Armenian Journal in the World”, Azdarar , which he printed and
published in 1794 in a printing press he established near the church.
The founder-editor of Azdarar could not make a success of the paper,
given the small number of Armenians in and around the city, but he
did, it is believed, print several Armenian classics in Classical
Armenian.
One of Armenia’s best-known sculptors, Levon Tokmajian, is now at
work in Calcutta, which still has an Armenian presence – though much
diminished in numbers – sculpting a 5-foot marble statue of the
Armenian priest who spent most of his life in the Madras church of
the Armenian Orthodoxy.
But the statue is to be raised in January in front of the Armenian
Church on Armenian Street in CALCUTTA. Now, I wonder why that is
being done when the Rev. Harathun Shimavonian’s achievements were in
MADRAS. Do the Armenians in Calcutta consider the tombstone in Madras
memorial enough to a pioneer in the world of printing?
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress