BY ARUNANSH B. GOSWAMI
India is a civilizational state with marvelous monuments, narrating the glorious Indian saga across the length and breadth of this phenomenally diverse country. It is a matter of great joy for Indians that our country is, for the first time, hosting a session of the UNESCO World Heritage Committee at Bharat Mandapam in New Delhi. I participated in the event as a delegate on the invitation of the Armenian embassy in New Delhi.
While opening the session, Prime Minister Shri. Narendra Modi said, “It is India’s clarion call to the world to come together to promote each others’ heritage and amplify the spirit of human welfare, encourage tourism, and create more job opportunities through the 46th World Heritage Committee meeting.” The Government of India is indeed committed not just to preserving India’s own heritage, but also to appreciating and helping preserve the heritage of other nations, which is a manifestation of Indians’ belief in “Vishwababdhutva.”
India and Armenia have millennia-old relations, and in order to make the esteemed participants of the session more aware of the same, an exhibition, titled “Art that Reinstates Friendship: Ajanta Revisited in Armenia,” was organized on the margins of the 46th session of the World Heritage Committee, curated by Head of the department of Decorative-Applied Art at National Gallery of Armenia, Dr. Satenik Chookaszian, and assisted by officers of the Armenian embassy in Delhi, as well as myself.
An Armenian pavilion has also been installed at the Bharat Mandapam. The idea for this exhibition was born when India’s Foreign Minister Dr. S. Jaishankar saw the “Ajanta in Armenia” collection of paintings of the Ajanta caves by noted Armenian artist Sarkis Khachaturian at the National Gallery of Armenia in Yerevan. It was organized, in part, by the Republic of Armenia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and the Ambassador of Armenia to India, Vahagn Afyan.
The exhibition was attended by Chairperson of the World Heritage Committee Vishal Sharma, Permanent Delegate of Armenia to the UNESCO Aram Hakobyan, the Ambassador of Georgia to India, and Georgia’s permanent representative to ESCAP. Vakhtang Jaoshvili, Chairman of the Preservation and Documentation of Antiquities Sector, Supreme Council of Antiquities, of the Government of the Arab Republic of Egypt, Dr. Hisham Elleithy, and several other dignitaries from Eastern Europe, Russian Federation, Kazakhstan and Switzerland were in attendance. Dr. Chookaszian and I had an opportunity to make visitors aware about the life and legacy of the great Armenian artist Sarkis Kachadourian, who played an important role in preserving Indian heritage.
Chairperson of WHC, Sharma mentioned in his address that India-Armenia relations are very strong and historic, but most people are not aware of them, saying, “It is important that people are made aware of India-Armenia relations using several international forums.” He mentioned that Armenian people migrated to India when Queen Semiramis invaded India (for the information of readers, we learn about the legendary queen of Assyria and founder of Babylon Semiramis from Greek, Armenian, and Jewish sources; she invaded India, according to Greek author Ctesias of Cnidus).
Apart from Armenian migration to India during Semiramis’ time, Sharma also mentioned the early Indian settlement in Armenia established by two princes from Kannauj, Krishna and Ganesha. He mentioned several other connections between these two ancient civilizations turned nation-states, as well as the welfare work India is doing in Armenia. After his address, Hakobyan and later Ambassador Afyan, touched on the significance of the exhibition.
Copies of Kachadourian’s several paintings, based on Ajanta frescoes, were displayed in the exhibition. But who exactly was Kachadourian? He was born in the city of Malatia in Western Armenia and studied at Karini Sanasaryan School, the Institute of Fine Arts in Rome, and the School of Decorative Arts in Paris. He played a very important role in the preservation of Indian heritage.
Kachadourian visited Ajanta, Pudukottai, Badami, Kumatgi, and Bagh and organized a one-man exhibition at the Chicago Art Institute in January of 1943, titled “Mural Paintings from the Cave Temples of India in Replica by Sarkis Katchadourian.” His reproductions of the world-famous Ajanta mural paintings are acclaimed as masterpieces in this sphere. Select paintings of the Ajanta caves by him are now in the National Gallery of Armenia in Yerevan.
Kachadourian’s first attempt at reconstruction of fresco paintings was the reconstruction of old Persian frescoes, or rather their remnants, which exist in the ruined palaces of Ala Kapy Chehel Saloon in Isfahan.
“How often have I seen him standing in motionless admiration in front of a fresco, almost destroyed, and then leaning forward and drawing away again, doing all he could to put into shape and form the paint and few traces left of the painters of Shah Abbas. Then would his face light up with a smile on discovering an invisible image, and he would take his brush. So, little by little, the features would acquire some shape and form, and the lines would be endowed with life, and out of these would appear the beautiful and the longivous youth, the tree, and the cup of oblivion so dear to the Persian poet’s heart,” said Audre Godard, the Director of Archaeology in Iran, about Kachadourian.
Bagh Cave paintings are said to be more or less contemporaneous with the Ajanta paintings and in beauty equally memorable. The Archaeological Department of Gwalior State, ruled by Maharaja Jiwajirao M. Scindia, did a great service to the preservation of Indian heritage by inviting Katchadourian to visit the Bagh caves, providing him all facilities, and finally exhibiting the excellent reproductions at the Gujari Mahal, Gwalior Fort.
When asked by the correspondent of the newspaper Jayaji Pratap in 1939, Kachadourian paid rich tribute to the splendid work undertaken by Scindia’s Archaeological Department and mentioned that, from the point of view of panorama, boldness of conception, and depiction of emotions, the Bagh Frescoes surpassed all other mural paintings in India. Maharaja Jiwajirao M. Scindia himself attended his exhibition at the Gujari Mahal. From Ajanta to Bagh, he studied many frescoes in India, and his paintings still leave observers awe-struck.
Kachadourian worked in India even when he was unwell, displaying a phenomenal dedication to preserving cultural heritage. An exhibition based on his works in India was much needed, and thanks to the efforts of this year’s WHC session’s host country—India—and the embassy of Armenia, this became a reality. It is indeed very important now that the millennia-old connections between these two countries are studied more comprehensively.
Both culturally and geopolitically, India and Armenia are coming closer. With the growing camaraderie between governments of Turkey, Azerbaijan, and Pakistan and their anti-India rhetoric on the Kashmir issue, the government of India is gradually realizing the importance of faster strengthening of cultural and geopolitical relations with governments of Armenia, Greece, and the Republic of Cyprus. I hope this continues, and both Indians and Armenians travel to each other’s countries more often; this will phenomenally help in strengthening people-to-people relations between India and Armenia.
Arunansh B. Goswami is an author, historian and advocate in the Supreme Court of India. He is a member of the Bar Association of Delhi and the Supreme Court Bar Association in India. Goswami has written on the history, culture and politics of various countries in several national and international publications. He is a delegate representing Armenia at UNESCO’s 46th session of theWorld Heritage Committee.
