MADRAS. - The Armenian Ambassador to India Ara Hakobyan visited Madras last week to inaugurate the Armenian Consulate in Madras, India, the Hindu reports. The first Honorary Consul of Armenia in Madras is businessman Shivkumar Eashwaran.

The Armenian presence in Madras began to increase from 1688 when the East India Company, finding the Armenians “sober, frugal and wise”, gave them the same trading rights as English freemen. These privileges were granted after negotiations between Coja Panous, Calendar of Isphahan, and the Company in London. The agreement was dated June 22, 1688, and was in due course communicated to the principal Armenian merchant in Madras, ‘Gregorio Paroan', and his fellows.

It was also promised that as soon as there were 40 Armenian merchants in Madras, they will be granted land to build a permanent church.

The first famous house of an Armenian in Fort St. George is currently called Admiralty House. It was built by Coja Nazar Jacob Jan who arrived in Madras in 1702.

Aga Nazar Jan was the first of the great Armenian merchants of Madras and was followed by the legendary Coja Petrus Uscan, Aga Shawmier Sultan, and Aga Samuel Moorat. When Samuel Moorat died in 1816, his son Edward Moorat ran through his huge patrimony in enjoying a life of luxury. With his death, the Armenian presence in Madras began to fade.

One Armenian of this era who left a different kind of heritage was the Reverend Harutyun Shimavonian, who started in Madras in 1794 the first Armenian journal in the world, Azdarar, and published several Armenian classics before he died in 1827.