Life On Earth...

The vivid shades of red and pink that signify the very vibrancy of life may come as a bit of a shock when seen in a cemetery... but then doesn’t a tomb or a grave also represent a life that once lived on earth? And isn’t it wonderful how design sensibilities inspired memory and life on earth? The unassuming Roman Catholic Cemetery in Agra — believed to be the oldest burial ground in North India — dates back to the mid-1500s. While the land was initially used by Armenian Christian traders to bury their dead, it later came to be used by the Portuguese, Italians, French, Germans, the Dutch and the English as well...

- Sudha Ganapathi

Agra is so overwhelmingly synonymous with the Taj Mahal that all other historical monuments and sites in the city register as an afterthought or sometimes not at all. The city’s Roman Catholic Cemetery, which is located off a busy road and next to a cinema, belongs to the latter category. The high walls enclosing the Cemetery give no indication of the presence of the graves of historically obscure, but interesting people. Stepping into the Cemetery and exploring its tombs and mausoleums is like travelling back in time.

History of the Cemetery

The origin of the Cemetery, which is believed to be the oldest Christian burial ground in North India, goes back to the mid-1500s during the reign of the Mughal Emperor Akbar. 1 A community of Armenian Christian traders, who had settled in Agra, were given land to bury their dead. In the decades and centuries that followed, the Cemetery also became the burial place for (European) Christians from different denominations as well as nationalities — Portuguese, Italians, the French, Germans, the Dutch and the English. 2

A cursory look at the gravestones reveals the cosmopolitan past of Agra with places like Isfahan, Tiflis (Georgia), and Constantinople appearing on them. The earliest graves are simple with a memorial slab marking the site and giving details of the person buried. The inscriptions in these graves are either in Armenian or in Armenian and Persian. Architecturally, the graves progress from simple ones to elaborate ones with urns, columns, and pyramids with inscriptions in Latin, English, French or Portuguese. There are many cenotaphs that look like chhatris of Hindu kings, but with a twist — they have a cross on top of the dome or chhatri.

Some important tombs