22 Nov Agra’s Roman Catholic Cemetery
The oldest Christian burial ground in India, existing from the era of Emperor Akbar
Agra was once the most cosmopolitan city in India. And a visit to its 450 year-old Roman Catholic Cemetery shows just how much of a melting pot this city once was.
As a lover of history, I have visited many historical graveyards across the world but the Agra cemetery is special; both for the exceptional characters who are buried here as well as for its remarkable array of tombs, which showcases a real intermingling of cultures and identities.
As one ducks under its old wooden door – held together by an ancient chain – and enters a leafy, well maintained compound, one is transported to the stories from the past. Resting here are merchants, mercenaries, ambassadors, priests…from as far as Europe, Georgia Isfahan, Constantinople – their gravestones inscribed in Persian, English, Latin, Urdu, Armenian, Portuguese, French. All with fascinating tales to tell.
The grave of the first Englishman to be buried in India
The cemetery dates back to the late-1500s, when emperor Akbar granted this land to Agra’s growing Armenian community for burying their dead. The city also has a famous “Akbar church” from the same era, established by the Armenians in 1562, that has been several times destroyed and rebuilt and still exists on its original site.
However, some historians believe that since the earliest grave in this cemetery dates from 1611 while Akbar died in 1605, the use of this land as a Christian graveyard must have been formalised by Akbar’s son, emperor Jehangir instead. We will not know for sure.
One of the earliest graves here belongs to John Mildenhall, and is the oldest British grave in India. Its inscription reads:
“…here lies John Mildenhall, an Englishmen who left London in 1599 and travelling to India through Persia reached Agra in 1603 and spoke with the emperor Akbar… died at Ajmere and was buried here through the good offices of Thomas Kerridge, merchant”
The oldest British grave in India: In this simple grave lies John MildenhallBy all accounts, John Mildenhall was a bit of a scoundrel. He had made two journeys to India; the first during Akbar’s reign where he tried to pass himself off as an ambassador for Queen Elizabeth and a representative of the newly established East India Company. Neither was true. Mildenhall’s attempts at negotiating trading rights for the English were not successful (as we know that it was William Hawkins who in 1609 first gained permission from Jehangir for an English factory at Surat) but yet, on his return to England, he attempted to sell the “concessions” he got from the Mughal emperor to a suspicious East India Company, which refused to engage with him.
Mildenhall’s second journey to India was even more colourful. In 1611, entrusted with goods by the East India Company for sale in the Levant, he landed at Aleppo (Syria) and promptly stole the consignment, making his way to India instead. Representatives of the Company chased and caught up with him, compelling him to return the goods along with a penalty, and then accompanied Mildenhall to India. On reaching India, Mildenhall fell ill in Lahore in 1614 and died at Ajmer. His body was later bought here.
Certainly, Mildenhall did not suffer from a lack of enterprise, though he was spectacularly unsuccessful in his adventures. But he can seek solace from the one unique distinction that nobody can take from him, of being the first Englishman to be buried in India.
The story of the famous “Red Taj”
The cemetery’s most prominent structure is the “Red Taj” which has the grave of Colonel John William Hessing (1739-1803), an Utrecht-born Dutch mercenary who had once commanded the armies of the Maratha empire.
Just as the Taj Mahal is considered a symbol of love, the “Red Taj” too can claim to be the same – but with a twist. This tomb was built by a grieving widow in memory of her dead husband, and not the other way around
The Red Taj is also a symbol of love; built by a grieving widow for her dead husband.With the waning of Mughal power in the18th century, an ambitious bunch of European mercenaries had spread across northern India making their fortunes working for native kings and princes. Colonel John Hessing was one among them. He had first come to Sri Lanka as a young 20-year old “freelance adventurer” with the Dutch East India Company, then returned to the Netherlands, and came back to India again to join the Nizam of Hyderabad and later the Maratha leader Mahadji Scindia and his nephew Daulat Rao Scindia.
At the time, Agra was being fought over by all the competing forces; the Mughals, Jats, Marathas, and British. Hessing was in the thick of this action. As a senior military commander for the Scindias, he was put in charge of the Agra fort and died while defending it… “sustaining lingering and very painful illness for many years with true Christian fortitude and resignation” as the inscription on his grave so eloquently puts it.
His “disconsolate widow, Anne Hessing” built the Red Taj for his grave. It is a miniature replica of the famous original, built in red sandstone instead of white marble and with floral designs replacing the Quranic funerary calligraphy. It stands as a beautiful example of the complete cultural fusion of the time, a Mughal tomb to remember a Christian soldier.
A red sandstone mini replica of the Taj, with Islamic calligraphy replaced by floral patternsAnother extraordinary soldier of fortune: Walter Reinhardt “Samru”
At the back of the cemetery lies Walter Reinhardt (1725-1778), another fascinating European mercenary with a remarkable life-arc.
Reinhardt was originally from Luxemburg or Austria. He had come to India, enlisted with the French army, and when the French were routed by Robert Clive’s English forces at Chandernagore in Bengal, he managed to escape and join Mir Qasim, the nawab of Bengal.
Qasim and the English were at constant loggerheads fighting for the control of Bengal. Their tussle came to a head in 1763 with the “Patna massacre”, when 45 employees of the East India Company were imprisoned and killed. It is said that the commander of Qasim’s forces had refused to fire on unarmed prisoners, but Reinhardt had no such qualms and carried out the act. The British branded him the “Butcher of Patna”, and nicknamed him “sombre” for his cheerless personality, which later got mispronounced by locals as “Samru”.
With the English baying for his blood, Samru – instead of packing his saddles and disappearing back to Europe – decided to raise his own multi-national force of mercenaries and offer his services to different bidders. They were in great demand, being hired by all the rival powers at one time or another. Ironically, while employed by the Jats, Samru (who was then the commander of Agra fort) had the famous “Akbar church” renovated; and he ended up buried in a cemetery that was established by the same emperor.
The tomb of Walter Reinhardt Samru was built by his influential wife, Begum Samru
Despite Samru’s exploits on the battlefield, perhaps his most famous legacy comes from his wife Begum Samru.
At a kotha in Delhi, Samru had met a young Kashmiri nautch girl called Farzana and, smitten by her charms, he married her. Samru was 45 years old at the time while Farzana was 15, and he was already married and the father of a son. Unfortunately, his elder wife Bara Bibi was stricken with a mental illness and when Samru died, the Mughal Emperor Shah Alam declared Farzana – or Begum Samru – the successor of all her husband’s properties including the vast estates of Sardhana (near Meerut).
Begum Samru (1753-1836) became one of the most remarkable characters in 18th-19th century India, rising from her humble origins to become a powerful ruler, military leader and the wealthiest women of her time. She converting to Catholicism, took the name Joanna and, despite her frail physique – she was described as barely five feet tall, delicate and fair – gained the reputation of a warrior queen.
Inheriting command of her husband’s trained European-style mercenary army, the Begum earned the loyalty of her troops in a male-dominated world, and the respect of all the influential powers of the time; the Mughal nobility, Marathas, Sikhs and the English. On several occasions she helped the Mughal emperor Shah Alam put down bloody revolts, personally leading her troops in battle, and even saving his life in the process. Begum Samru built a massive basilica at her jagir in Sardhana – considered one of the largest churches in north India – and when she died at the ripe age of 85, was buried there. But she was only 25 years old when her husband died, and she buried him here in a Mughal-inspired tomb in this cemetery in Agra, where he lies today.
The end of a life of adventure; quiet lies the grave of Walter Reinhardt SamruOther monuments to explore: Marty’s Chapel, Ellis family tomb
Marty’s chapel is the oldest structure in the cemetery.
A small, octagonal, single-domed building topped with a small cross, this was originally built as the tomb of Khoja Mortinepus, an Armenian merchant buried here in 1611. But as a plaque on the wall describes in great detail, also buried here are the Armenian bishop, Zakur of Tabriz (who died in 1615), four other Armenian priests (one assumes these priests served the Armenian church at Agra, or “Akbar’s church”), and another twenty-six souls most of whom died in the 1600s; including Jesuits from as far as Lisbon, Florence, Brussels, Bavaria and a clutch of smaller towns which I needed to check on the map to find where they were (like Lamego in north Portugal, or Klagenfurt in Austria, or Lucca in Italy).
Here were some of the most intriguing…
“D’Anhaya and Carcia arrived at Agra from Hugli in July 1633 with 4000 Christian prisoners…”
“Fr Albert Dorville (born Brussels 1622)..travelled with Fr John Grueber from Peking to Agra via Lhasa and Kathmandu, arrived Agra 1661, died Agra 1662)”
“Fr Henry Uwens alias Busi…mathematician, the friend of Dara Shikoh”
“Fr Anthony Gabelspercer (born Bavaria 1719)…astronomer to Jai Singh of Jaipur”
Marty’s chapel has a host of remarkable souls from near and far buried within itAnother prominent structure in the cemetery – one of the first one sees on entering – is the beautiful yellow coloured mausoleum of the Ellis family. Under its bulbous dome is the grave of Francis Ellis who died in Agra in 1868, and surrounding him are seven other members of the Ellis family, the most recent grave being 1921. I dug around for information on the Ellis family but I couldn’t find much, apart from them probably being rich English merchants settled in Agra (clearly they were wealthy to afford such elaborate tombs), though not historically significant.
The Ellis family tomb houses a family of merchants that we don’t know much aboutTo better understand Agra, visit this cemetery
It is not surprising that with such a wealth of world-famous monuments to visit in Agra, the Roman Catholic cemetery remains under-explored. But I suggest you take the time out to include this in your Agra agenda, for it is like opening a window into what this city once was; a cosmopolitan, syncretic world-city with a remarkable mingling of cultures, and rich in heritage.
The styles of these tombs says a great deal about both the people buried in them as well as the historical period in which they lived. How completely and seamlessly the builders (and mourners) embraced Mughal styles and sensibilities. In this, it is unlike any of the better known colonial-era cemeteries, such as the South Park Street cemetery in Kolkata. These examples of cultural and architectural syncretism, the blending of European burial traditions but in an Indian context, is unique only to this cemetery.
How to get here:
Turn off the busy NH 19 at the Bhagwan Talkies crossing, on to Mahatma Gandhi Road
About 100 meters down Mahatma Gandhi Road turn left on to a narrow lane. The entrance gate is located down this lane on the left
Information:
- Parking is available on the road outside the cemetery
- Entry is free
- Open from sunrise to sunset
- There is a caretaker on the premises. If the gates are closed he can open it for you.
Sources:
- “Agra: The Architectural Heritage”. By Lucy Peck. Published by Roli Books, 2008
- “A Travelers Guide to Agra”. By Satya Chandra Mukerji. Published by Sen & co, 1892
- “Begam Samru, Fading Portrait in a Gilded Frame”. By John Lall. Published by Roli books
- “Begum Samru. Her Life and Legacy””. By Preeti Sharma. Published by Academic Excellence, India.
