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From: "tfuller.tfresearch" <>
Subject: Armenian names
Date: Sun, 26 Mar 2000 14:36:56 +0100


Hi All

The recent flurry of comment about Armenians in India has really got me
thinking about my on-going Armenian projects.

I am not going to go into great details because of time pressures. However,
for people that have enquired I have sent them copies of my joint article
(with Jenny Law) on looking for Armenians.

Gill asked for an idea of Armenian names. Some of them are easy to spot -
ending in "...ian" or ...venasyan" but many are not because they were
Anglicised and were frequently distorted by translation. However, there ae
some names that are probably well known, but as merchants and traders,
rather than Armenians/Anglo-Armenians.

Chater/Chatoor, Agacy, Arathoon/Aratoon, Aviet/Aviatick, Jordan, Paul,
Martin, Vardon are just a few of the most common names. However, there are
several clues in names which really only people that know the community
would pick up.

A couple of general points though. The Armenians once had substantial
communities across India, several of which pre-dated the Europeans arriving
in India. In addition, they had been trading to the East Indies for many
years through Persia. Over the years the community has shrunk and is now
about 200 souls, all of whom live and work in Calcutta. The last major
Armenian Church in India is the Church of the Holy Nazareth at the top of
Armenian Street in calcutta. Unfortunately the Armenian College has all but
ceased to exist.

There are still large Armenian cemeteries and ruined churches across India
and in Pakistan, especially towards Persia/Iran.

As the overall community contracted, many Armenians married outside of the
Armenian community and faith - there is an Armenian Orthodox Church and the
India records contain large numbers of Armenians/Anglo-Armenians marrying in
RC churches or High Anglican churches. There was not (and is not) the same
reaction to "out-marriage" as there was and still can be in the Jewish faith
and that helped the community effectively prosper even after their
mercantile interests declined.

Initially, Armenians in India were either traders or diplomats, working for
local rulers. Clive used Armenians extensively as negotiators. However, as
their communities declined and they married out, they became more involved
in administrative functions and moved away from commerce (early 19th
century) to government service, the PWD and the law or medicine.

One of the main reasons for their development as administrators was that
many spoke several languages having been educated with classical Persian,
which was used by the HEIC and both ancient and modern Western Armenian,
together with English. That is why so many Anglo-Armenians ended up on the
Telegraph Service.

Apart from Ann Curry's book on Armenians in India, the only other
substantive publication is by Mesrobv Jacob Seth (another common name) but
to call this history is taking the whotsit. Seth thought of himself as a
polymath but, unfortunately whilst some of the book is very interesting and
has good details - a lot of MIs - much of it is his personal view of the
world and is very prejudice and quite racist. The common concensus is that
the book is basically a collection of the ruminations of a rather bitter old
man, his bitterness coming out in the text.

I have been asked to rewrite Seth to bring it up to date etc and will be
really getting on with that when I have finished my other ongoing book
projects, probably the middle of next year.

I am always willing to help with one-off enquiries but please, no shopping
lists.

Hope this helps some of you out there

Regards

Tony Fuller






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