India

The Armenian community in India has existed for hundreds of years. Today, however, much of the community has either assimilated or left, though a few Armenians and their legacy remains in cities such as Madras, Mumbai, and Calcutta. (which has the largest Armenian community in the country)

The Armenians of India

An Historical Legacy
by David Zenian
7/1/2001

Several churches, cemeteries and less than 200 Armenians are all that's left of the once powerful Armenian colonies of India, a country of more than one billion inhabitants, but their legacy is still alive and strong.

Maybe Indian schools do not teach who the Armenians are, but that was no reason for a young Indian quiz show contestant not to know the name of the first Christian nation of the world. The question came up recently in the popular Indian equivalent of "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire." One of the three possible choices was Armenia, and Ganesh Shinde of Bombay had the right answer .

Of course Ganesh Shinde was not alive when Armenia adopted Christianity as its state religion in 301 A.D. He was not even a history major in school, but the uninterrupted ties between Indians and Armenians over the centuries and the long line of famous Diaspora Armenians in India were more than he needed to help him answer the question.

According to Zenob (Zenobius) Glak, one of the first disciples of Gregory the Illuminator, the patron saint of Armenia, a Hindu colony was already established in Armenia sometime around 149 B.C. In a book written in Syriac, translated into Armenian and eventually printed in 1832 by the Mekhitarist Order of Armenian Catholics in Venice, Zenob said the colony was established by two Indian princes who had taken refuge in Armenia after a failed plot against a regional king.

The Armenians gave the two men and their families, along with their supporters, a "royal welcome" and offered them land in the province of Daron where they built a city and named it Veeshap and in later years built several Hindu temples. Relations between the Indian settlers and the Armenians took on a negative turn when they fought against the forces involved in the establishment of Christianity as the state religion of Armenia in 301 A.D.

Over the years that followed, the Indians either converted to Christianity and were assimilated into the Armenian society, or left the country. Those were turbulent years, but contacts between Armenia and India were not severed.

On the contrary, over the centuries that followed relations not only continued, but flourished.

Similar references to early Indo-Armenian relations appear in one of the works of Greek writer Xenophon (430-355 BC) along with writings of 5th to 18th century Armenian historians and scholars like Movses Khorenatsi, Yeghishe, Yeznik Koghbatsi, Davit Anhaght, Tovmas Artsrouni, Stepanos Orbelian, Khatchatour Joughayetsi and many others. According to Xenophon, Persian kings often turned to Armenians for help with their trade missions to India.

Madras

Almost seven centuries before Vasco da Gama set foot on Indian soil on May 20th, 1498, an Armenian merchant by the name of Tomas Cana had landed on the same south India Malabar Coast in 780 A.D. Little is known as to where he came from, but he is said to have been a trader, and a skilled diplomat who built a huge fortune.

To this day, he is known by the Malabar Christians of India, and especially those living in and around Madras, as Kana Tomma, a transliteration of his original name which in Armenian means Kahana (priest) Tomas. It is not clear whether he was in fact an ordained priest, but, nevertheless, he is credited with reviving Christianity in the region.

The Christians of Madras, also give credit to Armenians for locating the tomb of St. Thomas, the Apostle of India who brought the Christian faith to the Indian sub-continent in 52 A.D., centuries before Europe adopted the faith.

According to a book published by the parish priest of Senhora da Expectora Church, built on the site in 1523 in suburban Little Mount of Madras, the Portuguese were told of the burial place of the Apostle St. Thomas by the natives and were taken there by Armenian merchants in 1517. Two centuries later, Khojah Petrus Woskan (Uscan), an Armenian trader, constructed 160 broad stone steps leading to this hilltop place of worship. Hundreds of thousands of Christian pilgrims still climb those stairs every year, especially December 18, when Indian Christians celebrate St. Thomas Day.

Khojah Woskan also built a long bridge across the river Adyar in 1726, which separates the hilltop shrine from the city of Madras. The bridge, which has since been reinforced, still stands and is the only route between Madras and its airport. A stone marker on the western side of the Maralai or Marmalong bridge reads: "Hunc pontem edificari jussit pro bono publico Coja Petrus Uscan natione Armeni, Ano Salutis, MDCCXXVI."

The same stone also includes inscriptions in Armenian and Persian, but they are almost unreadable due to erosion.

Along with Surat and Bombay, the southeastern coastal Indian city of Madras was also familiar to Armenian traders from as early as the 8th century, but it was not until sometime around 1504 that a community started taking shape.

Madras has given the Armenians of India many prominent people, including Khojah Petrus Woskan, Shahameer and Hagop Shahamirian, and Agha Samuel Mgrditch Moorat, who together with Edward Raphael made the initial financial donations for the establishment of the Moorat-Raphaelian School in Venice which has educated generations of young Armenians from around the world.

Madras was also the birthplace of Armenian journalism and the home of Father Haroutiun Shmavonian who published the first Armenian periodical in the world, the Azdarar, in 1794. The publication, however, lasted only until 1796, after which the same printing press continued publishing Persian language books'for the first time outside Persia.

Between 1794 and 1863, at least 11 Armenian-language journals were published in Madras, Calcutta and Bombay, including the Patriot Armenian, the official newspaper of the Araratian Society, which was formed in 1845.

Agra

Armenian traders have been active in India for centuries, but it was not until the reign of Mogul Emperor Akbar (1556-1605), the Marcus Aurelius of India, that the first full-fledged Armenian colony was established in the town of Agra of Taj Mahal fame where the first Armenian church was built in 1562.

Akbar not only paid for the construction of the church, but in later years took an Armenian woman by the name of Mariam as one of his Queens, appointed Abdul Hai, an Armenian, as his chief justice and took on an Armenian woman doctor, Juliana, to look after his family.

It was Akbar who arranged Juliana's marriage to Prince Jean Philipe de Bourbon of France in 1560. One of Abdul Hai's grandsons, Alexander, who was born in 1592 and given the name of Mirza Zul-Qarnain by Akbar himself, grew up to become an Emir of the Royal Court during the reign of Emperor Jehangeer.

In one of his writings, Jehangeer makes several references to Mirza Zul-Qarnain as "the son of Iskandar, the Armenian" and describes him not only as "intelligent and fond of work", but also an accomplished composer of Hindi songs. "His method in this art was correct and his compositions were frequently brought to my notice and were approved." Jehangeer wrote.

Volumes have been written on the life and works of Mirza Zul-Qarnain by several scholars of the era, including Michel Angelo Lualdi, a Jesuit, who, in Annual Letter of Goa for 1619 said: "The (Christian) Faith was propagated most in a certain province of Mogor, where Mirza Zul-Qarnain, a native of Armenia and a Christian from his birth, ruled since 1619 with the title of Governor. He built a church in his province where the faithful would assemble". The number of poor having greatly increased, he took some 200 of them to his palace and supported them with great generosity."

During his lifetime, Mirza Zul-Qarnain, along with his father Hagop, made numerous charitable donations not only to Jesuit charities, but also to the Armenian churches in Jerusalem. Father (originally from Aleppo), son and descendants not only developed great mercantile enterprises, but also held high administrative positions through the middle of the 17th century, leaving a legacy of business, civic and charitable accomplishments, which set an example for future generations of Armenians in India.

Mirza Zul-Qarnain was not the only prominent Armenian in the Mogul Court. An Armenian interpreter, who had for reasons unknown changed his name to Damingo Pires, played an important role in negotiations between the Court and the Portuguese who maintained major trading posts in India.

In a letter addressed to the Portuguese Viceroy, Akbar informed him that he was sending "Abdullah, my ambassador, and Damingo Pires, an Armenian Christian interpreter, with the request that you will send me two learned Fathers and the books of the Law, especially the Gospel , that I may know the Law and its excellence."

Thousands of tourists visit the Taj Mahal in Agra every year, but few are aware that the city was once home to a vibrant Armenian community. In Agra's main Christian cemetery on the outskirts of town, an ancient mausoleum, which also serves as a chapel, and the old tombstones of more than 100 Armenians give a new meaning to what Shakespeare once said: "Let's talk of graves, of worms and epitaphs."

The mausoleum, built in 1611 over the grave of Khojah Martiros, a prominent Armenian merchant, is the most ancient Christian structure in northern India.

But who was Khojah Martiros?

Father Joao de Valasco, a Jesuit priest, in his "Annual Report" to Rome in 1612, describes the circumstances of the chapel's construction.

"Lately this cemetery was adorned with a Chapel, erected with the alms of a pious Armenian, who free from the bonds of wedlock after the death of his wife, went to Rome and Jerusalem on a pilgrimage to the Holy places of our Redemption," Father Valasco wrote. In the concluding lines of his report, Father Valasco said Khojah Martiros gave away all his wealth to the poor because he believed that "these goods were no longer his, but the Lord Jesus's."

The Agra cemetery is all that's left of the once thriving Armenian community, but the Indian government faithfully maintains the fenced property as a historical monument.

More than 110 Armenians, including eight priests, were buried there between 1611 and 1927. The inscriptions on their graves, mainly in classical Armenian, tell the story of a community which once called Agra home.

The vast majority hail from Julfa, Persia, where Armenians first settled in 1605 and later began to spread out east for trade with not only India but also China. In accordance with the traditions prevailing in those days, only first names are inscribed on the tombstones along with that of their fathers. "This Holy cross is in memory of Rev. Astvatsadoor, son of Thasaleh of Julfa. Died at Agra in the year 1063 of the Armenian era (1614 AD)," is just one example of many. It is interesting, however, to note that between 1707 and 1774, no Armenians were buried in the Agra cemetery, probably because most of them relocated to Delhi when the Imperial capital moved there.

Another interesting fact is that not a single woman was buried there between 1611 and 1777, an indication that the Armenian men who came to Agra for trade left their wives and families behind.

The first woman buried at the Agra cemetery was Mariam Khanoom,"the daughter of Lazar, who departed to the Lord on the 13th of June, 1777." From that date onwards, some 24 other Armenian women were buried there, indicating the presence of not just Armenian traders, but also families

New Delhi

Very little is known about the early Armenians of Delhi. According to several Armenian primary sources, a British delegation from Calcutta to Delhi in 1715 to the Court of Emperor Farrukh Siyar, included an Armenian merchant by the name of Khojah Israel Sarhad, and that on their arrival they were received by an Armenian priest, Father Stephanus, indicating the presence of an Armenian community.

One of the prominent Armenians of Delhi in the late 1700's was Colonel Jacob Petrus, the son of an Armenian merchant from Yerevan, Armenia, who made a name for himself fighting on the side of his adopted country against British colonialists.

For 70 years, Col. Jacob and his men held on to the central Indian city of Gwalior, 118 kilometers south of Agra, and led an army of 12,000 men and 40 Armenian officers. When he died, the whole city of Gwalior is said to have gone into mourning, and instead of a traditional 21 gun salute, local dignitaries and fellow officers bid him farewell with a 95 gun salute' representing his age.

The tombstone over Colonel Jacob's grave in the Armenian cemetery of Gwalior reads: "Sacred to the memory of Colonel Jacob. Born 24th of March, 1775, obeit 24th June, 1870. Aged 95 years and 3 months. He commanded the first Brigade of Scindhiah whom he served faithfully for 70 years. May he rest in peace."

As much as Col. Jacob is remembered for his allegiance to his adopted country, the famous poet, Sarmad, remains the most famous until today. According to many scholars, including Thomas William Beal, Sarmad is the "poetical name of an Armenian merchant who came to India in the reign of Emperor Shah Jehan", became a Sufi and was beheaded in 1611 near the famous Jama (mosque) Masjid in Delhi.

His tomb is more of a shrine today, where hundreds of devout Indian Moslems gather for prayers. His works, and especially the poetry he wrote in Persian, are still very popular and hold a prominent place in Sufi literature.

Surat

Like Delhi, the western coastal town of Surat, a port-city north of Mumbai, also had an Armenian diaspora population during the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries.

One of the few signs of a once-flourishing Armenian presence are the remaining graves of the old Armenians, including that of "the noble lady, who was named Marinas, the wife of the priest Woskan. She was taken to the Lord of Life, a soul-afflicting cause of sorrow to her faithful husband, in the year 1028 of our Armenian era " or 1579 A.D.

According to available records, the Armenians of Surat were mostly merchants who operated their own private ships for trading with Europe, particularly in the buying and selling of jewelry and precious stones while many others were involved in cotton and silk weaving, transporting their products outside India on Armenian-owned ships. One such ship-owner was Khojah Minas, "an able and well reputed Armenian merchant" who was also known then as "the President of the Armenians at Surat."

A prominent 18th century jewel merchant of Surat was Khojah Johannes Rafael who purchased the famous Indian diamond weighing 195 carats and sold it later to Russian Prince Orloff in 1775. Orloff presented the gem to Empress Catherine II who had it set in the Imperial Russian scepter. Another notable figure was Hripsimeh Leembruggen, born in Surat in 1778, the daughter of a Eleazar Voskan, a wealthy Armenian merchant. She married Robert Henry Leembruggen, a Dutch employee of the East India Company in Surat. Inheriting considerable money and jewels from her father and succeeding in business on her own, upon her death in 1833 she bequeathed all her fortune to Armenian religious, educational and charitable institutions, principally to the Armenian Church in Madras for the care of orphans.

The business acumen of Armenians in India was highly regarded by the British who came in contact with them during the 17th century. The English tried to win the confidence and cooperation of successful Indian-Armenians in order to secure their intercession with the Mogul Court for trading privileges in India. The efforts of the English came to a head when an agreement was signed in London on June 22, 1688 between the East India Company and "the Armenian Nation." This latter entity was represented by Khojah Phanoos Kalandar, a native of New Julfa who had settled in Surat. The English describe Kalandar as "a merchant of eminency and the head of the Armenians in India."

Mumbai

After Mumbai was taken over by the British in 1661, and Surat lost its luster, Khojah Minas was asked to settle in Mumbai in 1676 and help with enhancing the local commerce. Over the years, as the Armenian community grew, a church was built.

While Kojah Minas made a name for himself in the 1600"s, the centuries that followed saw dozens of Armenians not only succeed in business, but also other professions. Dr. Joseph Marcus Joseph, a Mumbai and London trained physician who entered the medical profession in 1852, rose to the rank of Deputy Surgeon General of the Mumbai region.

An article published by the the Daily Post newspaper of Bangalore in 1885, reporting on Dr. Joseph"s retirement, praised his "very credible career extending over well nigh thirty-three years of varied professional experience and good honest work." Dr. Joseph, who died at the age of 60 in 1866, is buried in the courtyard of the Madras Armenian church.

Calcutta

The one man most instrumental in helping the English establish themselves in Calcutta was the eminent merchant Khojah Israel Sarhad, a nephew of Khojah Phanoos Kalandar. Sarhad, a resident of Hoogly near Calcutta, was held in high esteem at the Court of Delhi and had consequently been sent by the English as special emissary to the Emperor Azem-Ush-Shan in 1698. He succeeded in obtaining a "Grand Firman" for the British from the Emperor, laying a foundation for British rule and commerce in India.

Other prominent Armenians in Calcutta include J.C. Galstaun, often called the doyen of the Armenian community in Calcutta, and Sir Catchik Paul Chater, a descendant of Khojah Phanoos Kalandar. Galstaun, a wealthy merchant left his legacy by erecting beautiful buildings such as his residence and a museum and establishing Galstaun Park. Chater, born in Calcutta in 1846, made his fortune in Hong Kong as an exchange broker and financier. His success was so striking that he became the greatest financial magnate of his time in Hong Kong, closely connected with all important civic and commercial activities of that city. Both men left considerable portions of their wealth to Armenian institutions in India.

In the last decades of the 19th century, there were six Armenians in the Indian Army"s Medical Service. Between 1855 and 1893, there were more than 25 Armenian advocates in the Calcutta High Court alone.

Even a superficial look at the history of the Armenians of India indicates that they were not just birds of passage. True that their numbers never exceeded 20,000, but their involvement in every facet of Indian life gave them the prominence and exposure which has survived the test of time.

In Calcutta and Madras, Armenia Streets are still there today. Armenian churches are still in Armenian hands, and a small, but determined Armenian community still lives with the pride of their ancestors.

A pilgrimage to Calcutta recalls Armenian history

By Leonard M. Apcar Published: November 17, 2008 http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/11/17/asia/calcutta.php

Before there were call centers and Indian conglomerates, before the East India Co. or the British Raj, there were Armenians who made their way to India to trade and to escape religious persecution from the Turks and, later, Persians.

Entrepreneurial and devout Christians, but familiar with the Islamic ways of Mughal emperors, Armenians arrived in northeast India in the early 1600s, some 60 years before British adventurers became established traders here. They acquired gems, spices and silks, and brought them back to Armenian enclaves in Persia such as Isfahan.

Eventually, some Persian Armenians - including my ancestors - left and set up their own businesses and communities here, landing first on India's western flank in Surat and nearby Bombay, the present-day Mumbai, and then moving to the river banks in northeast India that led to Calcutta's founding as a sprawling manufacturing and port city.

At its zenith, Calcutta was the British Empire's "second city." Its vast manufacturing centers rivaled the English Midlands, and wealth flowed freely to Jews, Britons, Armenians and some Indians. They in turn poured money into elaborate colonial mansions, Victorian memorials and a luxurious Western way of life virtually transplanted to the wilting jungle of West Bengal.

The British are gone now, of course, and that way of life is literally crumbling in the dusty, clogged streets of Calcutta. All but gone, too, are the Armenians who began leaving India long before the British.

But last week Armenians with Calcutta roots gathered here again from around the world. More than 250 people came officially for the 300th anniversary of the oldest church in Calcutta, a finely preserved Holy Church of Nazareth tucked inside the narrow, winding alleys and chaotic bazaars of the north section of this city.

But they also came to be together again and to honor an extraordinary restoration effort of all five Armenian churches and assorted graveyards in northeast India.

I came from Hong Kong, but many came from England, Iran, the United States and Australia. We walked the cemeteries looking for graves of grandparents and great-grandparents, toured the 187-year-old Armenian school, admired the ambitious renovation work recently completed on the churches and cemeteries and at the gleaming white church in downtown Madras.

Armenians never amounted to more than a few thousand people in Calcutta, but in the 18th and 19th centuries they ran trading companies, shipping lines, coal mines, real estate developments and hotels. A few served in the colonial government, and some had sewn themselves so finely into the fabric of colonial India that they were decorated with British titles and were leaders of private English-only clubs.

"They ran Calcutta," one alumnus of the Armenian school, David Alexander, said with a touch of exaggeration.

By the time the British left, and an independent India was on a socialist and anti-colonial bent, the Armenians had mostly cleared out. Wealthier, educated and more confident as entrepreneurs, they left not for Armenia itself, then a Soviet-controlled postage stamp of a state, but for London, where some Calcutta Armenians had second lives, or new frontiers in Australia or the United States.

My great-grandparents left earlier; as a young couple they headed for Japan in 1890, and their descendants ended up staying and trading for 50 years.

Of the nine million Armenians in the world, only about a third are in Armenia. The bulk are in Russia, the United States and France, with a smattering along the trading routes of Asia. Armenian churches and graveyards dot India in Agra, Delhi, Hyderabad, Madras, Mumbai, Surat and, of course, Calcutta. But they are also in Dhaka, Bangladesh; Yangon in Myanmar; on Penang Island off the coast of Malaysia; Singapore; and parts of Indonesia - all places where Armenians settled, traded and worshiped.

Worship is the social adhesive that binds Armenians together. Clannish and wary of outsiders, the church has always been the focus of their socialist and cultural lives. Given Armenia's pride as the first state to adopt Christianity as its religion, it was not surprising that last week with the families came Karekin II, Catholicos of all Armenians, as the leader of the Holy Armenian Apostolic Church is known, and a choir of two dozen from the church's seat in Etchmiadzin, Armenia.

But the real stars in Calcutta were its five churches. Only a few years ago four of them were weed-infested snake pits looking like Roman ruins. Now, in the midst of southeast Calcutta's horrid slums, on gritty, rutted roads, rises Holy Trinity Chapel in the Tangra district with a new dome and a manicured graveyard. Inside, I found the refurbished graves of my great-great grandparents, who in the 1880s lived in Calcutta and Rangoon, as Yangon was known then.

"These things had to be recreated," said Haik Sookias Jr., who helped lead the reconstruction effort in Calcutta. "If we let our churches go, then Armenians will never come back to India, and people will walk by and say 'the Armenians used to live here.' But by renovating these churches, Armenians will live here forever."

Richard Hovannisian, a historian and professor of Armenian studies at the University of California at Los Angeles, said what distinguished the Armenian diaspora in India was that the Armenians never accompanied their trading ambitions with military force. Nor did they try to enforce cultural supremacy. "They succeeded within the structure of the adopted communities," he said.

At base, Armenians were survivors with a fortunate sense for sometimes picking the right side when superpowers clashed. When it became clear that the British were going to overpower other Europeans and Arabs to take control of India, Armenians agreed to ship all their goods to Europe and the Middle East exclusively with British ships instead of the Arab fleets they had used before.

When the Dutch ruled what is now Indonesia, and their ships ran out of money during long, storm-delayed sailings around the Cape of Good Hope, the story goes that Armenians loaned money to the Dutch. It wasn't purely a banking transaction. It also ensured that Armenian businesses might continue to prosper in the Java rice fields.

Over time, Armenian merchant princes were overpowered by the rise of merchant banking institutions in Europe and the large international companies they financed, Hovannisian said.

As Indians took control of their country, Armenians were looked on as holdovers from a colonial past. Many large Armenian family enterprises in India were either sold off or closed.

Today, there are only a few hundred Armenians in the entire Calcutta region of about 15 million people. The Armenian school here has long relied on students from abroad to fill its dormitories.

While the Armenian community in Calcutta has all but disappeared, there is hardly a serious guidebook or history book of the city that does not mention their influence, charities and churches.

That is a source of pride and communal strength reflected in last week's commemoration. "When the economic powers of Indian communities weakened and waned, there were greater challenges to figure out how to establish deep roots here," said Professor Hovannisian. "It drew the Armenians closer."

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Armenia, India Launch New Center In Yerevan To Expand Cooperation In IT

LEARNING FROM ASIAN TIGER: ARMENIA, INDIA LAUNCH NEW CENTER IN YEREVAN TO EXPAND COOPERATION IN IT
By Siranuysh Gevorgyan

ArmeniaNow
08.11.11 | 12:15

An Armenian-Indian center of information and communication technologies that opened in Yerevan on Monday is expected to boost the country's IT sector that for years has been declared by the government as a priority. Attending the opening ceremony at the Yerevan State University were Armenian Prime Minister Tigran Sargsyan and India's Minister of State for Communications and Information Technology Sachin Pilot.

According to officials in charge of the project, the center's goal is to deepen bilateral cooperation in the IT industry and promote the involvement of world-class IT workforce in Armenia, organize joint research projects, etc.

Prime Minister Sargsyan said in his opening remarks that it will give fresh impetus to IT research and educational programs. He said that the center's teachers were trained in India and explored new methods being used in the sector. The center has been equipped with a supercomputer, PARAM, which is unique for the South Caucasus region.

According to the prime minister, it will give a rare opportunity for the center to carry out new research work. Research in the center is expected to focus on 20 directions.

The prime minister also said that this center will be useful for efforts to develop a technological park in Armenia's second largest city, Gyumri.

Indian minister Pilot, for his part, said that India is ready to share its 20-year experience in the IT sector with Armenia.

"Our help to Armenia will be not in the form of money, but in the form of scientific potential," he said.

At present, India is one of the world leaders in the IT sphere. The Indian Information Technology industry accounts for more than 5.19 percent of the country's Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and export earnings as of 2009. In 2010-11, annual revenues from the IT sector are estimated to have reached some $55 billion and is expected to touch at $225 billion by 2020.

As of January 38 enterprises with the involvement of Indian capital had been registered in Armenia. These enterprises are engaged in different branches of the light industry, such as production of clothes, pharmaceutics, etc. Armenia's Economy Minister Tigran Davtyan expressed a hope that the visit of the Indian minister to Armenia would give an opportunity to involve India also in Armenia's IT sector.

During a meeting with the Armenian prime minister, Indian minister Pilot said that the two countries should establish new economic ties, expand bilateral cooperation in different directions. Prime Minister Sargsyan said that Armenian-Indian economic cooperation is on a high level in the pharmaceutical and chemical industries, machinery and information technologies, and the government of Armenia is interested in developing cooperation also in the tourism sector, in which the organization of two-way flights could be instrumental.

Later, the Indian IT state minister held a meeting with local specialists of the sector at the Synopsys Armenia office in Yerevan.

First Indian song ever recorded was done so by an Armenian

Առաջին հնդկական երգը ձայնագրել է հայազգի Գաուհար (Գոհար) Ջանը 1902 թվականին։ Հունիսի 26-ին նրա ծննդյան տարելիցին եկեք հիշենք նրան և լսենք նրա երգը։ @MinOfCultureGoI @IndianDiplomacy @Nilakshi_Sinha

क्या आप जानते हैं? सन 1902 में, राग जोगिया में ख़याल गाते हुए गौहर जान द्वारा पहला भारतीय गीत रिकॉर्ड किया गया था। वह एक प्रसिद्ध गायिका होने के साथ-साथ नर्तकी भी थीं। आज उनकी जयंती पर उन्हें शत्-शत् नमन।

https://x.com/IndiainArmenia/status/1806274921170956666

See also

• Embassy of India in Armenia

External links

• Armenians in India
• Armenian Churches in India website
• Armenians in India history and genealogy website