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The Indian Analyst
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South Indian Inscriptions |
EPIGRAPHIA INDICA No. 9.- THE ARMENIAN EPITAPH AT THE LITTLE MOUNT. BY FATHER VARTAN MELCHISEDECH, OF THE MECHITHARIST CONGREGATION, VIENNA. Mr. Sewell’s Lists of Antiquities (Vol. I. page 175 f.) contain a short, but excellent description of the three sites on the south of the city of Madras which are connected with the legend of St. Thomas. These are─ the village of St. Thomé, which claims to possess the apostle’s grave ; the Little Mount, where he is said to have suffered martyrdom ; and St. Thomas’s Mount, the church on the top of which contains the famous inscribed cross.[1] The church at the Little Mount is reached by a flight of stone steps, and at the foot of these is set up a stone which bears a cross and; below it, the subjoined Armenian epitaph. The stone lately attracted the attention of His Excellency Sir Arthur Havelock, the Governor of Madras. At his instance Dr. Hultzsch sent inked estampages of the inscription to Professor H. Hübschmann; of Strassburg, who was the first to decipher it. It is dated in the year 1112 (of the Armenian patriarch Moses), i.e. A.D. 1663, and is the epitaph of an Armenian merchant, named David, the son of Margarê. TEXT.[2]
TRANSLATION. This is the grave of Khoja[8] David, the son of Khoja Margarê.[9] In the year 1112. __________________________ _________________________________________________________ | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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