Armenian Good Friday, Calcutta (Kolkata)

Burial of Christ ~ Armenian Good Friday

St. Gregory, the Illuminator, Armenian Chapel, Calcutta (Kolkata)

Also see my blog post on Armenians of Calcutta (Kolkata)

The coffin bearers slowly carried the black coffin, beautifully stacked with flowers outside the small chapel adjoining to the Lower Circular Road Cemetery in Calcutta (Kolkata). Strangely it was not a funeral and nor the black coffin contained any dead body !!!!

Armenian Good Friday, St. Gregory, the Illuminator chapel, Calcutta (Kolkata)

It was the Good Friday service of the Armenian Christian community at the St. Gregory, the Illuminator Armenian Chapel at Park Circus.

St. Gregory, the Illuminator, Armenian Chapel

The Armenian history in Calcutta dates back to the mid 17^th century. The Armenians have believed to have settled in Calcutta far beyond the days of Job Charncok, the controversial founder of the city.

The Armenians also have the distinction of having the oldest Christian Church in Calcutta. The  Armenian Church, officially known as the Holy Church of Nazareth was originally constructed in 1707, but the present building dates back to 1724. The Armenian Christmas Mass, which is held on 6 Jan. instead of 25 Dec., is held at the Armenian Church.

The Good Friday service is held at the St. Gregory, the Illuminator, Armenian Chapel, which is hidden inside a narrow winding lane in the Park Circus area and is adjoining to Lower Circular Road Cemetery.

Armenian Good Friday Service

St. Gregory, the Illuminator, Armenian Chapel was constructed in 1906 by the funds raised by the Indian Armenian Community. The chapel, located on a narrow lane in the Park Circus area is extremely difficult to locate.

The complex also houses an old age home named after an eminent Calcutta Armenian Catchick Paul Chater. The complex also contain several graves of the Chater family. The complex is beautifully decorated with lawns, flowerbeds and marble statues. It can be considered as an oasis of peace in one of the chaotic locations of Calcutta (Kolkata).

Sadly the Good Friday services lacks the grandeur of the Christmas, which is normally attended by the entire Armenian community of Calcutta (Kolkata). On the other hand the Good Friday service is attended only by a handful of Armenians.

Round the chapel. with the coffin

The Good Friday Service starts at about 3 pm. Lead by Rev. Father Khoren Hovhannisyan, pastor (priest) of Armenians in India and assisted by Rev. Fr. Geghart Ghabaghyan along with a host of boys from the Calcutta Armenian School and College. It recreates the burial of Jesus Christ.

The black coffin, beautifully stacked with flower was placed before the alter. Prayers were said and songs were sung. The coffin bearers final lift the coffin, supposed to contain the body of Christ, and make their way slowly outside the chapel. They made their way round the chapel and the coffin returns to the original place.

Round the chapel. with the coffin

Further prayers follow and the services come to an end with the distribution of the flowers stacked over the coffin, which are said to bring good luck.

Special Thanks:

• To my Armenian friends Liz Chater and Max Galstaun for providing valuable information about the Good Friday Mass and also about the location of the St. Gregory, the Illuminator, Armenian Chapel.
• To Rev. Father Khoren Hovhannisyan, pastor (priest) of Armenians in India and the entire Armenian Community of Calcutta.

Armenian Christmas Celebration, Calcutta (Kolkata)

Armenian Christmas Celebration

6 January 2013, Armenian Church, Calcutta (Kolkata)

Also see my blog post on Armenians of Calcutta (Kolkata)

Armenian Christmas Celebration, Armenian Church, Calcutta (Kolkata)

Yes you have read it right “Christmas on 6 January !!!!!” It is the Armenian Christmas. The Armenian Orthodox Church  celebrates the birth of Christ on January 6 (also known as Old Christmas).

Choir, Armenian Christmas, Calcutta (Kolkata)

According to Rev. Father Khoren Hovhannisyan, pastor (priest) of Armenians in India “When we wish someone Merry Christmas in Armenian, we are actually saying that Christ is born and revealed, and blessed is Christ’s revelation.”

According to historic records Christians worldwide celebrated Christ’s birth on January 6, till the fourth century. Rome changed the birth date to December 25 to override a pagan festival dedicated to the birth of the sun. The Armenian Church just kept the original date. Also Armenia happens to be the first country to adopt Christianity as the state religion.

Armenian Christmas, Calcutta (Kolkata)

Although only 150 Armenians live in the city but the Armenians have a long history dating far beyond the days of Job Charnock, the controversial founder of the city of Calcutta. Unlike the Portuguese their relation with the English has always been friendly. The Armenian Church of Calcutta (Kolkata), oficaillay known as the Holy Church of Nazareth was built in 1707 but the present structure dates back to 1724 thus making it the oldest church in Calcutta (Kolkata). Over the years the Armenian Church of Calcutta (Kolkata) has undergone several modification and extension, including the inclusion of the clock tower.

Armenian Christmas, Calcutta (Kolkata)

The Christmas Mass, officially known as the Divine Liturgy started at about 9:30 am conducted by Rev. Fr. Khoren Hovhannisyan, he was assisted by Rev. Fr. Geghart Ghabaghyan along with a host of boys from the Calcutta Armenian School and College. The language was Armenian and although I didn’t understand a word of what they said but it was a mesmarising experience hearing their voice thunder through the corridors of the Armenian Church.

The grand alter was decorated beautifully with flowers and candles. The Christmas choir consisting of boys and girls from the Armenian College sang from the balcony.

The audience hall is packed with about 150 Armenians, many of them of them coming form far of lands like the USA and Australia. A large section of Calcutta (Kolkata) Armenians have long migrated to far of countries but many make it a point to return on the Christmas day to the church where they were baptized.

Cross, Armenian Christmas, Calcutta

Mr Malcolm Catchatorian, the lead singer of the Armenian Xmas choir, have travelled all the way from California, USA to attend the Christmas in the church, where he himself was baptised more than 60 years ago.

To prepare themselves for the great festival, Armenians fast for a week to cleanse themselves to be worthy of a great miracle and prepare for the celebrations of the great festival. The Armenian Christmas is quiet different from the Protestant and Catholic Christmas Mass. The highlight of the Armenian Christmas is the ceremony of  “Blessing of Water” it commemorate Christ’s Baptism in River Jordan. The Cross will be immersed in water to symbolize the baptism of Christ.

Armenian Christmas Celebration, Armenian Church, Calcutta (Kolkata)

The mass ends with the drinking of the “Blessed Water” along with wafers and kissing of the cross, which represent “Baptised Christ.”

Special Thanks:

• A special thanks to the entire Armenian Community of Calcutta (Kolkata) for their immense cooperation and for allowing me to photograph the entire event.

Reference:

• It’s Xmas time for Armenians The Times of India, 3 Jan., 2012
• It’s Christmas day for a band of Armenians The Times of India, 6 Jan., 2011

This blog entry on Armenian Christmas, Calcutta (Kolkata) has been twitted by Amitav Ghosh.

St. James’ Church (Jora Girja), Calcutta (Kolkata)

St. James’ Church, Calcutta (Kolkata)

Jora Girja, Church with the twin spires

Also see my compilation of Calcutta (Kolkata) Churches

Jota Girja is an important bus – stop on the Lower Circular Road (Presently AJC Bose Road). The name originated from the twin spires of the St. James Church.

St. James’ Church, Kolkata (Calcutta) and the foundation stone

Exterior decoration, St. James’ Church, Calcutta

The original St. James Church of Kolkata (Calcutta) dates back to 1823 and was located in the Nebotola Lane, near Amherst Street. The foundation of the church was laid in 1820 by the first Bishop of Calcutta T F Middleton. The church was open to public by the Bishop Heber in 1823.

But the church had serious construction errors and soon started developing cracks and chunks of masonry soon started crushing down. The church authority were forced to close down the church in 1855.

The present building, sandwiched between the St. James’ and Pratt Memorial School, of the St. James’ Church dates back to 1868 and was designed by the East Bengal Railway Architect Walter B Granville, who also designed the Kolkata High Court, GPO and Calcutta University Senate Hall (the last one no longer exists).

Interior Design, St. James’ Church, Calcutta

Built in Gothic style the St. James’ Church or the Jora Girja is one of Kolkata’s elegant churches, with pointed Gothic arches on both its exterior and interior.

The twin spires, one of which contains a clock, is joined by a beautiful triangular pediment. The interior contains a long passageway leading to the alter.

But the star attraction of the St. James’ Church is the beautifully decorated black mahogany wood work at the ceiling. Something so durable, that even the termites of Kolkata have spared it for 146 years. But the termites haven’t spared the wooden floor of the second level. With the church crumbling again the parishioners finally decided to give it a face-lift.

Kolkata based conservation architect Manish Chakraborty was assigned the job of restoring the 146 year old St. James’ Church. The beautifully restored church was handed over to the parishioners of 11 December 2011. I was specially invited by Manish Chakraborty to photograph the St. James’ Church on the eve of the hand over.

Special Thanks:

• Mr. Manish Chakraborty, conservation architect.

Reference :

• Swasat Kolkata by Nishitranjan Roy

List of my Blog entries on Calcutta (Kolkata)

St. John’s Church, Calcutta (Kolkata)

First Anglican Church of Calcutta (Kolkata)

Also see my compilation of Calcutta (Kolkata) Churches

Located at the North – Western corner of the Governor House (Raj Bhavan) lies the St. John’s Church. Built in 1787 St. John’s Church is the third oldest church in Calcutta (Kolkata) only next to the Armenian and the Old Mission Church. St. John’s Church served as the Anglican Cathedral of Calcutta (Kolkata) till 1847 when it was transferred to St. Paul’s Cathedral.

Built by architect James Agg the St. John’s Church is built with a combination of brick and stone and was commonly known as the “Pathure Girja” (Stone Church). It was built in the lines of St.Martin’s in the fields, London.

The St. John’s Church contains beautiful marble bass relief work. wood curving, stain glass and paintings including Zoffani’s famous Last Supper.

Foundation Stone of St. John’s Church

The land for the St. John’s Church was donated by the Maharaja Nabo Kishen Bahadur the founder of the Shovabazar Raj Family.

The foundation stone was laid by the laid by Warren Hastings, the Governor General of India on 6 April 1784.

Inside the St. John’s Church:

• Memorial to James Achilles Kirkpatrick, The White Mughal
• Memorial to James Pattle and his wife
• Zoffany’s last Supper

Memorial to James Achilles Kirkpatrick, The White Mughal:

Memorial to James Achilles Kirkpatrick, The White Mughal

James Achilles Kirkpatrick, the central character of William Dalrymple best selling work of history White Mughals died in Calcutta on 15 October 1805 at the age of 41. He was buried at the North Park Street Cemetery. Sadly the neither his grave nor the cemetery exists to this day.

But James’ father, popularly known as the Handsome Colonel, along with his brothers erected a memorial in memory of James Achilles Kirkpatrick on the southern wall of the St. John’s Church, where it stands to this day.

 Memorial of James Pattle and his wife:

Memorial to James Pattle and his wife

It is not only William Dalrample’s characters of history who have nade it to the walls of St. John’s Church in Calcutta (Kolkata), but the memorial of Dalrample’s great great grandfather also finds its place in the walls of the church.

According to Dalrample “Seven generations of my family were born in Calcutta, there are three Dalrymples sitting inside St John’s graveyard. And a great-great-grandfather’s plaque is on the St John’s Church wall, James Pattle.”

“James Pattle was known as the greatest liar in India. A man supposed to be so wicked that the Devil wouldn’t let him leave India after he died. Pattle left instructions that when he died, his body should be shipped back to Britain. So, after his demise (in 1845) they pickled the body in rum, as was the way of transporting bodies back then. The coffin was placed in the cabin of Pattle’s wife and the ship set sail from Garden Reach. In the middle of the night, the corpse broke through the coffin and sat up. The wife had a heart attack and died.”

“Now both bodies had to be preserved in rum. But the casks reeked of alcohol and the sailors bored holes through the sides of the coffins and drank the rum… and, of course, got drunk and the ship hit a sandbank and the whole thing exploded, cremating Pattle and his wife in the middle of the Hooghly! That’s why you see a plaque on the wall and not a grave in the graveyard of my great-great-grandfather.”

Zoffany’s Last Supper:

Zoffany’s Last Supper

On the walls of the St. John’s Church hung a Leonardo style Last Supper. Painted by Johan Zoffany (1734 – 1810) the painting is not a exact replica of Leonardo’s master piece. Zoffanay rather gave an Indian touch to the historic Biblical event.

The top left hand corner of the painting shows a sword, which represents a common peon’s tulwar. Water ewer standing near the table is a copy of Hidustani spittoon and next to it lies a water filled beesty bag (a goat skin bag used for storing water).

But the greatest feature of Zoffany’s Last Supper lies in the selection of model used by Zoffany to represent Jeasus and his twelve disciples.

• Jesus: Greak priest Father Parthenio
• John: W.C.Blacquiere the police magistrate of Calcutta during 1780s. The effeminate police officer was a master in adopting female disguises.
• Judas: William Tulloh, an auctioneer.

Incidentally John of Joffany’s Last Supper also look feminine enough to produce another Dan Brown’s Da Vinci Code.

Zoffany’s Last Supper has recently been restored by Renate Kant, a german painting conservator based in Singapore.

This photo shows the conserved photo after it was put on display on 3 July 2010.

The St. John’s Church compound also contains several other monuments including:

• Job Charnock’s Tomb
• Black Hole Monument
• Rohila War Memorial
• Lady Canning Memorial
• Francis (Begum) Johnson’s grave

Job Charnock’s Tomb

Job Charnock’s tomb & his Epitaph

On August 24, 1690 an ambitious trader, Job Charnok, of the British East India Company landed in the village of Sutanuti (present day North Calcutta) never to return. Although Charnock died two years later, but he combined the three villages of Sutanuti, Govindopur & Kolikata to form the city of Calcutta.

The octagonal Moorish style tomb was erected by Charnock’s son in law Charles Ayer. Built of stones brought all the way from South India, which later came out to be known as Chranockite.

The grave also contains the body of Charnock’s wife and several other people.

The Epitaph of Charnok’s grave is in latin. The English translation is given below.

In the hands of God Almighty, Job Charnock, English knight and recently the most worthy agent of the English in this Kingdom of Bengal, left his mortal remains under this marble so that he might sleep in the hope of a blessed resurrection at the coming of Christ the Judge. After he had journeyed onto foreign soil he returned after a little while to his eternal home on the 10th day of January 1692. By his side lies Mary, first-born daughter of Job, and dearest wife of Charles Eyre, the English prefect in these parts. She died on 19 February AD 1696–7.

Black Hole Memorial:

Black Hole Memorial

The Calcutta Black Hole is one of the most controversial events of India history. According to the British account, during the seize of Calcutta Siraj ud – Daulah took 146 prisoner and confined them in a room measuring 14 feet by 8 feet and locked them up overnight. Only 23 survived, the rest 123 perished of suffocation and heat stroke.

John Holwell a survivor, who later became the Governor of Bengal, left this account. John Holwell even went on to build a memorial at the site of the Black Hole (present day GPO).But the Indian historians have objected to Holwel’s theory of Black Hole. It is believed that the the British resident escaped through a secret tunnel to the banks of the Hogghly. from where they were carried off to Madras by an awaiting ship. According to R C Majumdar ‘Holwell story is completely baseless and can not be considered reliable historical information.’

The story of the Black Hole Monument is no less interesting. Holwell is said to have erected a monument at the site of the Black Hole tragedy. But somewhere in 1822 the monument disappeared only to be rebuild by Curzon in 1901 at the South – West corner of Writers Building. During the height of independence movement in 1940 the British were forced to remove the Black Hole Monument to the compound of St. John’s Church, where it stands to this day.

The octagonal obelisk styled memorial contains the names of 123 people who are said to be “killed” in the Calcutta Black Hole.

Rohilla War Memorial:

Rohilla War Memorial

Rohilla War (1772 – 74) was fought between the Rohillas and the Nawab of Oudh, with the British backing the later. Rohillas are a branch of the Pashtun tribe of the Pakistan and Afghanistan border. Some of the Rohillas settled in the Oudah region and soon a conflict began between the Rohillas and the Nawab of Oudh, Shuja – ud – Daula. This resulted in Rohilla War.

The British backed the Nawab of Oudh and finally on January 1774 the Rohilla chief Hafez Ruhmet was killed resulting in the defeat of the the Rohillas. A treaty in October 1774 brought the dispute to a close. With their power somewhat restricted the Rohillas continued to live in their territory of Rohilkhand, which still exists in the state of Uttar Pradesh.

The Rohilla Memorial at the St. John’s Church compound consists of a circular dome supported by 12 pillars. The memorial contains a plaque with the names of several British Military Officers, killed in the Rohilla War.

Lady Canning Memorial:

Lady Canning’s memorial

Charlotte Canning (1817 – 1861) was the wife of Charles Canning the Governor General and Viceroy of India. She died of malaria and was burried in Barrackpore (Barrackpurthe)a memorial was also constructed in the St. John’s Church graveyard.

Lady Canning name have been made immortal by the famous sweet maker Bhim Nag, who specially designed the sweet Pantua in her honor and named it Ladykeni.

Lady Canning’s elaborately decorated memorial lies on the Northern corridor of the St. John’s Church.

Francis (Begum) Johnson’s grave:

Francis (Begum) Johnson’s Grave

Located at the far end of the St. John’s Church complex and next to Job Chranok’s tomb lies the beautiful circular temple like tomb of Francis Johnson (1725 – 1812). The grave stone inside the beautiful grave is no less interesting than the grave itself.

Fransis Johnson (popularly known as Begum Johnson), the grand old lady of Calcutta, lived up to a age of 89 and married four times. The epitaph makes an interesting reading, as its describes the entire life of Fransis Johnson, with details of his four husband and their respective children.

References:

• An Artist’s Impression by Desmond Doig
• Swasat Kolkata by Nishitranjan Roy
• 10 Walks in Calcutta by Prosenjit Dasgupta
• Jaywalkers Guide Calcutta by Soumitra Das
• “Wicked man on the Wall” by Samhita Chakraborty Lahiri, The Telegraph
• White Mughal by William Dalrymple
• My Personal Website

List of my Blog entries on Calcutta (Kolkata)