On February 5, around 15 Armenians from different parts of south India and Kolkata gathered at the Armenian Church in Chennai, to remember Reverend Father Harutyun Shmavonian, priest and founder-editor of “Azdarar,” the first Armenian journal ever to be published, the Times of India reports.
Azdarar was printed and published in Madras 229 years ago by Shmavonian, who lived most of his life in the city, until his death on February 9, 1824.
Shmavonian was born in Shiraz in 1750, but when he was serving as a priest there, he lost both his sons within a week of each other to an infectious disease.
It was the hardest period of his life and to overcome his grief he left the city for Mt Babakuhi, near Shiraz, where he lived with Iranian sufi practitioners. For seven years, Shmavonian immersed himself in the study of languages – Persian, Arabic and French – which he mastered. Although at the request of his family, he returned to Shiraz, the memory of his sons was too much to bear.
He requested to be sent as a priest to Madras, which at the time had an influential Armenian community engaged in commerce. It is said in the last decades of the 18th century, a group of Armenian liberal intellectuals – the ‘Madras Group’ – was formed.
Shmavonian arrived in Madras in 1784 with his wife and daughter. During his stay here, he became acquainted with Shahamir Shahamiryan, an Armenian writer, philosopher and merchant. Shahamirian founded the first Armenian printing press in Madras in 1772 and published ‘Snare of Glory’ under the name of his son, Hakob Shahamirian, in 1773, which contained a proposed constitution for the future Independent Armenian Republic.
After his sons who were helping him in the printing and publishing work died, he asked Shmavonian to manage the printing press and continue the work. In 1789, Shmavonian took over the press and began printing books in Armenian. The type used was cast by him from materials prepared by his own hands. He even made the paper himself from cotton pulp.
Shmavonian then began to publish ‘Azdarar’, the first periodical and newspaper in Armenian in the world, on October 28, 1794. At the outset, Azdarar had only 28 subscribers. It was a monthly journal of 48 pages. The layout was simple —one column, titles and text in the same size except for the main headings which were in capital letters. The price of the Azdarar was fixed at one hoon per copy (hoon was referred to as pagoda by the English traders). These coins both in silver and gold, bore inscriptions in Tamil.
Introducing the first issue of Azdarar, Shmavonian is supposed to have written: “One month ago, a distinguished Englishman started publishing, at the end of each month, a journal that contains the lives of celebrated people, interesting articles and stories. . . Following the example of that paper, we too started publishing, at the end of each month, a similar paper.”
Azdarar contained literary articles, contributions, as well as announcements of births, marriages and deaths in the Armenian community in Madras. It also contained commercial and shipping information, reviews of books and advertisements by Armenian merchants. It is said that merchants brought him news from Armenia, Persia and Russia, almost like overseas correspondents. He also translated news from English and French publications into Armenian. Some pages contained information about the natural beauty of Madras and vignettes on life in the city.
Azdarar was published in Grabar (classical Armenian) though some of the text, news and announcements were in Ashkharhabar (modern Armenian). There were also individual writers who preferred to remain anonymous, who were given the option of dropping their articles in a special drop box, placed under the bell tower of the church. Shmavonian received permission from Muhammad Ali Khan Wallajah, the Nawab of Madras and Arcot in 1795, to print and publish books in Arabic and Persian.
Azdarar was a monthly publication printed for 18 months. After Azdarar was launched in Madras, several other Armenian language publications began cropping up in other cities.
Shmavonian later lost his home because of heavy debt incurred by his daughter and grandchildren. He lived almost all his life in Madras, where he died at the age of 74. He is buried in the Armenian churchyard. The present gravestone is a recent replacement and the original is set into the wall of the belfry tower.
Source: EN