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XV. —The Indians in Armenia, 130 b.c.—300 a.d.1

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 March 2011

J. Kennedy
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Extract

The existence of an ancient Indian colony in Armenia is well known to Armenian scholars, but Indianists have paid little attention to it. We owe our knowledge of it to Zenob, a Syrian, and a native of Glak (Klag), which Mr. Ellis suggests may be the Armenian equivalent of Kerak. Zenob became an ecclesiastic in an unknown town of Cappadocia called Nystra, and was the companion of St. Gregory the Illuminator on an idol-smashing tour through Armenia, about the year 304 a.d. By St. Gregory's command he wrote an account of this expedition to his Cappadocian brethren, and in it he gives a lively account of the Illuminator's little war with the Indian idolaters of Tarôn (Darôn). Zenob's history, composed originally in Syriac, has come down to us in an Armenian version, which has suffered from revision. It has been twice translated into French, and part of it into English. Zenob's work has the charm and freshness of a contemporary narrative, and throws a good deal of light on the early history of monachism and the worship of relics. He was well acquainted with the Indians he mentions, as he was for twenty years Abbot of the Convent of the Nine Springs, founded by St. Gregory on the site of the Indian temple. The convent beacme one of the most famous in Armenia, and was popularly known from the time of Zenob as the convent of Glak.

Type
Original Communications
Information
Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society , Volume 36 , Issue 2 , April 1904 , pp. 309 - 314
Copyright
Copyright © The Royal Asiatic Society 1904

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References

page 310 note 1 Tarôn was a district of hills and plains on the upper Euphrates, lying westward of Lake Van. It was half Syrian in character, and adjoined the country afterwards occupied by the Mamikonians, a famous Chinese family who fled to Armenia in the early part of the third century a.d. The district is now known, Mr. Ellis tells me, as the district of Moush, and was the scene of some of the recent Armenian massacres. Moush is mentioned by Zenob, but it was not then the chief town of the district.

page 310 note 2 I agree with Avdall and Lassen that these idols were named Gisanê and Demetr. But Emin says: “Nous trouvons ces efforts d’assimilation complétement inutiles par la simple raison qu’il est nullement question dans le récit de Zenob de deux divinités indiennes s’appelant Kisané et Temedr. Ces deux noms n’étaient que ceux des deux pères, premiers émigrants de l'Inde. Après qu’ils furent tués sur l’ordre du roi d’Arménie les fils transportèrent les idoles de leurs héréditaires d’Achichat sur le mont Karké, et depuis lors ces idoles furent connues des habitants du pays de Darôn sous une dénomination générale des dieux pères Kisanê et Temedr” (“ Recherches sur le Paganisme Arménien,” pp. 30–31). But Zenob, after describing the idols of Gisanê and Demetr and the fate of the idolaters, goes on to say: “ Voici du reste l’origine des idoles existant en ces lieux [i.e. of Gisanê and Demetr]. Etant venus à Aschdischad, ils y érigèrent ces idoles sous le nom de celles qu’ils adoraient dans l’Inde.” In the next paragraph he says that “ Guĕar’ Méghdès et Hor’ian se rendirent sur la mont K‘arkê. Ils y érigèrent deux idoles, l’une sous le nom de Kiçanê, l’autre sous celui de Témétr,” etc. (J.A., 1863, pp. 454–455). There is nowhere mention of any others than these two, or of any idols left at Ashtishat. I have not seen Emin's book, and have to thank Mr. Williams for the extract.

page 311 note 1 Artzan = idol or statue. Armenians, and even Armenian Christians, used it sometimes as a personal name. Mr. Ellis has pointed out to me an instance in Moses of Khorene.

page 311 note 2 Phaitakaran is the territory inclosed by the junction of the Kūr and the Ceras, and is the Bailagān of the Arab geographers. No European traveller appears to have visited its ruins.—Mr. Ellis's note.

page 312 note 1 Seth's conjecture that they came from Kanauj is not only unsupported by evidence, hut is contrary to all probability. Kanauj was not at this time a place of importance, and the emigrations from it do not begin until eight or nine centuries later.

page 312 note 2 Mr. Grierson suggests some connection with the Śakas. I would rather suggest a connection with the last part of the word Μακδονες—the Macedonians—the name by which the Bactrian Greeks were known.