To fit the text into the grid row, the carver used a variety of tactics: strict grid of rows defining the height of letters.Each stone follows a particular format, as unique as the letterforms themselves: The tombstones we found varied in size, ranging from a small book to a table. The only remains of this once flourishing community of successful merchants, eminent lawyers, renowned poets, skilled artisans, military commanders, clever diplomats, and able administrators are left inscribed in the tombstones of the Armenian Cemetery at Surat. The eventual rise of the English East India Company and the shift towards Bombay as the вЂGateway of India,вЂ™ brought the decline of Surat. It is here that the English merchants, arriving to India in the early 17th century, saw with grave concern that the Armenians вЂ“ the pioneers of foreign trade in India вЂ“ were well established in the country. Historic Surat was the port city linking East and West. In each, they built communities with schools, churches, printing presses, cultural institutions, and, ultimately, cemeteries. They established first in the royal capital of Agra then spread throughout commercial centres: Surat, Calcutta, and Madras. In the 16th century, Akbar the Great, learning of the global network of the Armenian trade, induced the merchant princes to settle their sojourn in his dominions. Since the days of remote antiquity, Armenian merchants travelled from snow-clad mountains to the tropics of India searching for spices, muslin, and precious stones вЂ“ birds of passage who found favour in the court of Mughal Emperors.

Commercial armenian script font