A chance
viewing of a posting on the social network site of Facebook led to a wonderful
joint international effort to uncover some hitherto previously unknown and
unseen historically important Armenian graves at Surat in India.
Liz
Chater, who has an ongoing project to photograph and record as many Armenian
graves in India as possible, was fortunate to stumble upon a wonderful set of
photographs posted on the Indo-Armenian Friendship NGO Group page on the
popular social networking site Facebook. Striking up a conversation
thread with the Arpine Gyulinyan who had made the posting, it quickly became
clear to Liz that there were a number of others as well.
Arpine who
is happily married and lives in Surat permanently with her husband Piyush Dalal
had recently visited the Surat Science Centre. At the entrance was a large
photograph entitled “ARMENIAN CEMETERY”. Enquiring about the photograph
with staff members she was advised that the Science Centre’s photographer,
Sanjay Choksi, was extremely knowledgeable about all the cemeteries in Surat
including the Armenian one. Sanjay kindly agreed to take Arpine and her husband
Piyush to the Armenian cemetery the next day.
Through
Arpine, permission was sought of and granted by Sanjay for copies of the
photographs to be sent to Liz with a view to trying to get them transcribed and
translated into English. Knowing of their historical importance and the
fact that these graves had never before been translated into English, Liz
turned to experts in this field for help.
Liz
approached Professor Sebouh Aslanian, Assistant Professor, Richard Hovannisian
Endowed Chair in Modern Armenian History at UCLA and Very Reverend Father
Krikor Maksoudian of Arlington, Massachusetts a professor of Armenian Church
history and a past director of the Krikor and Clara Zohrab Information Centre
New York, both of whom very generously agreed to assist with these difficult
transcriptions. Very Reverend Fr. Krikor had previously assisted Liz with the
grave transcriptions for her book: “Armenian Graves, Inscriptions and
Memorials in India DACCA 1722-1977” published last year. There are
very few people who are able to successfully transcribe from the now extinct
Julfan dialect. The graves at Surat are of that very rare dialect and Liz
was indeed very fortunate to have two such exceptional experts willing to
assist and help break down historic barriers. The Armenians of Surat are of
particular interest to Professor Aslanian and he was keen to help with the
translations.
For family
historians and scholars alike, the newly translated Armenian graves of Surat
will open up avenues of research that had been closed for many years. This
project is a fine example of social networking operating in a positive and
useful fashion, bringing individuals together who normally would never meet,
and on this occasion Liz was simply a conduit by which the whole process
passed. She is delighted to host and share this joint effort on her website and
also wishes to thank all those involved for their time, effort and patience to
ensure the rare and important details of these monuments are available for the
future researcher. The English transcriptions can be found at:
There are
a number of other graves that require to be photographed, it is hoped that
these will be completed shortly. Additional transcriptions are being
added weekly to her website.
Courtesy: Ms. Liz Chater
