Mesrop Taghiadian

Mesrop Taghiadian was born in the village of Karbi near Yerevan in the Erivan Khanate of Qajar Iran on 2 January 1803.[1] Taghiadian lost his father at a young age and was raised by his grandmother.[2] He received his primary education at a seminary in Etchmiadzin.[1] From 1816 to 1821, he traveled throughout the provinces of Eastern Armenia with a group of monks headed by his teacher Poghos Gharadaghtsi, collecting and recording folk songs and oral traditions.[1][3] During this time, Taghiadian was made a deacon (sarkavag) of the Armenian Church.[3] While at Haghpat Monastery, Taghiadian decided to travel to Paris via the Ottoman capital of Constantinople to receive a higher education, but was forced to abandon his plans and instead decided to go to India, which at the time was ruled by the British East India Company.[4] In India, he was immediately hired as an assistant teacher at the Armenian College in Calcutta.[4] From 1826 to 1830, he studied at Bishop's College on a scholarship and received a master's degree.[4][1] He published several works during this time, including translations into Classical Armenian of Grotius's De veritate religionis Christianae (1829) and Reginald Heber's poem Palestine (1830), as well as his own booklet titled Dits’abanut’iwn ("Mythology").[1] He also translated excerpts from Shakespeare, Chesterfield, John Milton, John Locke, Alexander Pope, Lord Byron, and Robert Burns into Armenian.[5][6]

Taghiadian returned to Etchmiadzin in 1831 with the intention of opening his own school, after an unsuccessful attempt to do so in New Julfa in Iran.[7] However, he faced hostility from the clerical establishment in Etchmiadzin and departed once again.[8] He lived briefly in New Julfa (1834–36), where he worked as a teacher and married Tangkhatun Setian, the daughter of a local Armenian merchant.[8][9][lower-alpha 2] They had two sons together, both of whom died at a young age.[11] In late 1836, Taghiadian traveled to Tabriz, where he became the English teacher of one of the sons of Fath-Ali Shah (r. 1797–1834), the former Shah of Iran.[12] In Tabriz, Taghiadian's financial situation remained dire, and in November 1837, his wife and second son died.[12] After the death of his wife, Taghiadian returned to Armenia and then left for Constantinople.[12] He lived in Constantinople for about a year, working as a tutor in the home of a wealthy Armenian amira.[12] Taghiadian was targeted for persecution by the Armenian Patriarch of Constantinople Hakobos for his association with American Protestant missionaries.[12] The patriarch had Taghiadian arrested and transported to Trabzon, whence he was to be deported to the Russian Empire and exiled to Siberia.[12] However, he managed to escape from his captors in Trabzon and, after a number of misadventures, once again reached Calcutta in late 1839.[13][9] In December 1839, he became the head of the Armenian section of the printing house of the Bishop's College.[1] He married for a second time in 1841 and worked as a peddler in Calcutta, although he never found success as a businessman.[9]

Taghiadian published a number of works during his second sojourn in Calcutta, including the pedagogical works Aybbenaran (1840) and Mesrovbean sharadrich’ (1840), the first part of a history of India titled Patmut’iwn hin Hndkastani (1841), and a work on the importance of girls' education Char’ dastiarakut’ean oriordats’.[1] In 1846, he published his novel Vep Vardgisi, an Armenian adaptation of Heinrich Zschokke's Abällino der große Bandit.[1] Taghiadian published a collection of his poems in 1847 under the title T’ut’ak T’aghideants’.[1] Also in 1847, he published Chanaparhordut’iwn i Hays, an account of his travels in Armenia.[1] In 1848, he published a long poem in the Romantic style titled Sos yev Sondipi, a love story between an Indian prince and an Armenian.[1][14]

From 1845 to 1852, Taghiadian published a periodical called Azgaser ("Patriot," later Azgaser araratean), which mainly published his own writings.[9][1] He published articles on the importance of education, the economic and political development of Armenia, and unity among Armenians.[1] Taghiadian welcomed the Russian conquest of Armenia in 1827 and called on Armenians in the diaspora to return to Armenia, seeing repatriation as the key to his homeland's development.[1] In 1846, Taghiadian founded a coeducational Armenian school in Calcutta called Surb Sandukht ("Saint Sandukht", also known as the Armenian Infant Seminary),[15] where he sought to apply contemporary European pedagogical methods.[1] In 1852, Taghiadian moved his printing press and school to Chuchura north of Calcutta, but both were closed soon after.[1] In 1858, having lost his second wife and being in constant conflict with the Calcutta Armenian community, Taghiadian decided to return to Armenia.[1][9] He fell ill and died on the journey and was buried in Shiraz.[1][9]

Taghiadian saw education, learning and unity as the main means to Armenians' advancement as a nation, and his writings reflect this goal.[16] He railed against superstition, ignorant clerics, and promoted enlightenment and patriotic ideals.[17] Taghiadian's works are some of the earliest Armenian works in the Romantic style and express the author's humanist views and belief in the capacity for humans to change for the better.[1] His novels represent some of the earliest examples of modern Armenian fictional prose.[17] His novels Vep Vardgisi and Vep Varsenkan highlight the virtues of loyalty to one's ruler, national unity, personal integrity, and self-reliance.[17] Taghiadian's poems have love and patriotism as their main themes.[17] In his poem Sos yev Sondipi, Taghiadian expresses ideals of human equality and the social importance of individual happiness.[1]

Like many contemporary and later Armenian writers, Taghiadian was concerned with the creation of a larger Armenian reading public.[17] He believed that the existing Armenian literature was too serious and dense to interest widespread readership and sought to "combine entertainment with practical purposes" in his works.[17][18] Unlike his contemporary Khachatur Abovian, who promoted the use of Modern Armenian as a literary language, Taghiadian wrote mainly in Classical Armenian, which he saw as a means of making his works accessible to all Armenians regardless of dialect.[19] In the pages of his periodical Azgaser, he strove to write in a simpler style of Classical Armenian that would be more understandable for his readers.[20]

In his articles, Taghiadian condemned European colonialism and advocated for the rights of colonized peoples.[21] He criticized what he saw as the hypocrisy of the colonizing powers, who claimed a high level of morality but committed numerous barbarous acts in their colonial conquests.[21] In particular, Taghiadian criticized the economic exploitation of India by Great Britain and the colonial authorities' indifference to poverty, which he saw firsthand in Calcutta.[22] Although Taghiadian welcomed the conquest of Armenia by Russia as liberation from oppressive Persian rule,[1] he vigorously opposed Russian serfdom and sympathized with the Decembrist rebels.[14]

• Astuacasēr ew azgasēr hasarakut῾ean hayoc῾ p῾rkeal k῾ałak῾in Erewanay srbakrōn k῾ahanayic῾, barecnund išxanac῾ ew hamayn barepastōn žołovrdoc῾, Kalkat῾a [Calcutta], 1828
• Čšmartut῾iwn k῾ristonēakan hawatoy, Kalkat῾a [Calcutta], 1829 (translation of Hugo Grotius's De veritate religionis Christianae)
• Pałestin: Psakeal k῾ert῾ac, Kalkat῾a [Calcutta], 1830 (translation of Reginald Heber's Palestine)
• Dic῾abanut῾iwn [Mythology], Kalkat῾a [Calcutta], 1830
• Mesrovbean aybbenaran [Mesropian Abecedary], Kalkat῾a [Calcutta], 1840
• Mesrovbean šaradrič῾ hay ew angłiakan lezuac῾ [Mesropian Composer of the Armenian and English Languages], Kalkat῾a [Calcutta], 1840
• Patmut῾iwn hin Hndkastani yanyišatak daruc῾ anti c῾yarjakumn mahmetakanac῾ [History of Ancient India, from the earliest ages to the invasion of the Mahomedans], Kalkat῾a [Calcutta], 1841
• Patmut῾iwn Parsic῾ [History of Persia], Kalkat῾a [Calcutta], 1846
• Vēp Vardgisi Tn. Tuhac῾ [Novel of Vardges, Lord of the Tuhians], Kalkat῾a [Calcutta], 1846
• Zuarčaxōs aṙakk῾ parsic῾ [Humorous Persian Fables], Kalkat῾a [Calcutta], 1846
• T῾ut῾ak T῾ałiadeanc῾ [Parrot Taghiadiants], Kalkat῾a [Calcutta], 1847
• Karg ew kanonk῾ surb Sanduxt dproc῾i ōriordac῾ ew paronkac῾ [Rules and Regulations of the Saint Sandukht School for Girls and Boys], Kalkat῾a [Calcutta], 1847
• Čanaparhordut῾iwn Mesrovbay T῾ałiadeanc῾ V. A. sarkawagi srboy Ēǰmiacni i Hays [Journey of Deacon of Holy Etchmiadzin Mesrop Taghiadiants, M. A., to Armenia], Kalkat῾a [Calcutta], 1847
• Čaṙ dastiarakut῾ean ōriordac῾ [Discourse on the Education of Girls], Kalkat῾a [Calcutta], 1847
• Mesrovbean aṙaǰnord mankanc῾ [Mesropian Handbook for Children], Kalkat῾a [Calcutta], 1847
• Sōs ew Sōndipi [Sos and Sondipi], Kalkat῾a [Calcutta], 1847 (reprinted in Constantinople in 1871)
• Vēp Varsenkan skayuhwoy ałuanic῾ [Novel of Varsenik the Albanian Giantess], Kalkat῾a [Calcutta], 1847
• Vkayabanut῾iwn srboyn Sandxtoy [Martyrology of Saint Sandukht], Kalkat῾a [Calcutta], 1847
• Čanaparhordut῾iwn M. D. T῾ałideanc῾ i Parskastan [Journey of M. D. Taghideants to Persia], Kalkat῾a [Calcutta], 1848
• Hamaṙōt k῾erakanut῾iwn haykazean lezui [Brief Grammar of the Armenian Language], Kalkat῾a [Calcutta], 1848
• T῾angaran T῾ałiadeanc῾ [Taghiadiants Museum], Kalkat῾a [Calcutta] (date of publication unknown)
• Ełerergut῾iwn yōrhas T῾ankay T῾ałiadeanc῾ [Elegy on the Death of Tank Taghiadeants], Tiflis [Tbilisi]. 1893
• Gełarvestakan erker, Erewan, 1965 (collection of Taghiadian's works, ed. Ruzan Nanumyan)
• Ułegrut῾yunner։ Hodvacner։ Namakner։ Vaveragrer [Travelogues, Articles, Letters, Documents], Erewan, 1975 (eds. Ruzan Nanumyan and Pion Hakobyan)
• Diwan, Mesrop D. T῾ałiadean։ antip ōragrut῾iwnner, erker ew k῾ert῾uacner, vaweragrer, namakner [Divan, Mesrop D. Taghiadian: Unprinted Diaries, Works and Poems, Documents and Letters], ed. Mesrop Ark῾․ Aščean, Nor J̌uła [New Julfa], 1979 (reprinted in Yerevan in 1993)

• Aščean, Mesrop Ark῾․ (1993). Diwan, Mesrop D․ T῾ałiadean։ antip ōragrut῾iwnner, erker ew k῾ert῾uacner, vaweragrer, namakner (in Armenian). Erewan.
• Bardakjian, Kevork B. (2000). A Reference Guide to Modern Armenian Literature, 1500–1920: With an Introductory History. Wayne State University Press. ISBN 9780814327470.
• Hacikyan, Agop Jack; Basmajian, Gabriel; Franchuk, Edward S.; Ouzounian, Nourhan (2005). The Heritage of Armenian Literature: From the Eighteenth Century to Modern Times. Detroit, Michigan: Wayne State University Press. ISBN 0-8143-3221-8.
• Nanumyan, Ṙ.; Grigoryan, G. (1978). "T῾AŁIADYAN Mesrop Davt῾i". In Hambarjumyan, Viktor (ed.). Haykakan sovetakan hanragitaran (in Armenian). Vol. 4. Erewan. pp. 130–131.
• Seth, Mesrovb Jacob (1992). Armenians in India from the Earliest Times to the Present Day. New Delhi: Asian Educational Services.
• T῾amrazyan, H. (1986). "Ēǰer hay k῾nnadatut῾yan patmut῾yunic῾" [Pages from the History of Armenian Criticism] (PDF). Banber Erewani Hamalsarani (in Armenian) (2): 11–23. Archived from the original (PDF) on 24 March 2023.

• Mirzabekyan, J̌․ (1971). Mesrop T῾ałiadyan (in Armenian). Erewan: HSSH GA hrat․.
• Nanumyan, Ṙ. (1948). Mesrop T῾ałiadyan (PDF) (in Armenian). Erewan: HSSṘ Gitut῾yunneri Akademiayi Hratarakč῾ut῾yun.
• Mirzabekyan, J̌. M. (1960). "M. T῾ałiadyanə hay banasirut῾yan meǰ" [M. Taghiadian in Armenian philology]. HSSṘ GA Tełekagir hasarakakan gitut῾yunneri (in Armenian) (12): 39–46. Archived from the original on 26 March 2023.

• Taghiadian's works on greenstone.flib.sci.am

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