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Armenians make pilgrimage to Kolkata

Celebration marks 300th anniversary of St. Nazareth Armenian Church

by Paul Chaderjian

Published: Friday November 07, 2008

The Holy Virgin Mary Church in Saidabad, founded 1758, after a recent renovation.

RAJDANI EXPRESS TRAIN FROM NEW DELHI TO KOLKATA, India, Nov. 7  - After jetting across the Pacific and Atlantic, boarding planes in Australia and Austria, enduring layovers in Hong Kong and Dubai, hundreds of Armenians from all over the world are gathering this week in Kolkata, the historic former seat of the Mogul and British rulers of these regions and home and focal point of the once-thriving Armenian communities in Northeast India.

On this Thursday into a Friday morning, one group participating in this multinational pilgrimage is on a 16-hour, cramped train ride into Kolkata, formerly known as Calcutta. The group's mission it to join others from around the world in celebrating the 300th anniversary of the founding of the St. Nazareth Armenian Church of Kolkata.

Joining the pilgrims to Kolkata will be Karekin II, Catholicos of All Armenians. His Holiness will be in India to visit his flock and perform reconsecration services at the Holy Virgin Mary's Armenian Church in Chennai, formerly Madras, a city some six hours southeast of Kolkata. Holy Virgin Mary's Church has been under renovation for the past few years.

What once was...

The guests of the Kolkata Armenian community will also help the remaining 80-plus members of the community and the students of the Armenian College (an elementary and high school) to honor the long history of the Indian-Armenian community.

The Kolkata-Armenian community once thrived with more than a thousand members. It boasted successful merchants, businesspeople, hotel operators, scholars, and spiritual guardians of Armenian culture in one of the most spiritual and religiously diverse centers of the world.

Armenians in India remained true to their identity in a nation that is home to more than a billion people, many of whom live in some of the most challenging conditions of poverty.

"The Armenian community has deteriorated over the years," said Helena Cray, an India native who organized one of the pilgrimage-tours from North Hollywood. "In spite of that, we have been able to maintain our churches. We have been able to maintain our heritage, our culture, and we have had mass in all of our churches."

Ms. Cray gave the Armenian Reporter an overview of the events before her group boarded the 16-hour Rajdahani Express from Delhi to head to East India. Her interview was conducted in the Mandarin Hotel, a few miles from the Taj Mahal, while the BBC and CNN International blared news of Barack Obama's victory in the U.S. presidential race.

"Armenians came here under British rule," said Ms. Cray, whose own grandfather left a village near Isfahan in Iran to resettle in Saidabad. He had had a vision that told him he needed to find a neglected Armenian house of worship in a faraway place and that he would be its caretaker.

"A majority of the Armenians were migrants from Isfahan," said Ms. Cray. Back in the early 17th century, Shah Abbas I, the Persian emperor, had moved some 200,000 Armenians from Armenia to near his capital, Isfahan. Some of them came to play an important role in trade with India.

Armenians were known to have come to India as early as the 1500s at the time of the Moguls that ruled northern India. There were Armenian settlements in the cities of Agra - home of the Taj Mahal - and Delhi, India's capital city.

"The majority of migration from Persia or Iran started in the early 1700s while the British were in power," said Ms. Cray. "Eventually the Armenian community that started with merchants doing business on the Silk Road boasted a large enough population and thus the community grew and flourished and the number of churches grew."

St. Nazareth was established 300 years ago, and now there are seven churches. The seven churches include one in Chennai, another in Tangra, and a third in Chinsurah.

"We also have a second church in Calcutta," said Ms. Cray, "and we have one church in Bombay. We had one in Delhi, but that one is destroyed and has not been a functioning church for many years. There are Armenians in Delhi, however, including the Consulate of Armenia."

Kolkata's Armenian wealth

Merchants and business may have drawn the original Persian-speaking Armenians to the region, but their entrepreneurship, business acumen, resourcefulness, and language skills prompted several to land prominent positions in the Indian court.

One of Shah Jahan's three wives is said to have been an Armenian from Portugal. She was named Mariam and eventually made it possible for one of the earlier Armenian churches to be built in Agra, near the Taj Mahal.

"We had Armenians who had lots of properties, who had hotels," said Ms. Cray. "They have been in the hotel industry."

Several hotels and mansions still stand today and are now owned by the Armenian Church.

"We just collect the lease on the properties," said Ms. Cray. "One of the hotels was the Grand Hotel, which still stands. That one is not owned by Armenians any longer, but the hotel is still operated. There are two other hotels that are operated and are currently owned by Armenians. One of the hotels is called the Fairlawn Hotel, and the second one is the Kenilworth."

Thanks to the generosity of historic figures like Paul Chater, Mnatzagan Varden, T.M. Thaddeus, David Aviet David, and Asdwadsatoor Mouradkhanian and their large endowments to the Armenian Church, the current community of some 80 Armenians is the recipient of annual benefits that keep the seven Armenian churches and the local Armenian College alive.

The Armenian College was established in 1821 and continues to offers a free education to any Armenian with at least one Armenian parent from anywhere in the world.