Publisher Harutyun Shmavonyan Founded October 16, 1794 | Editor Harutyun Shmavonyan | |
 | ||
Headquarters Madras, Madras Presidency, British India | ||
Azdarar (Armenian: Ազդարար) (pronounced Aztarar in Western Armenian) was the first Armenian language newspaper ever published. It was established on October 16, 1794 in the city of Madras (now Chennai) in India by Father Harutyun Shmavonyan.It is also first non English newspaper to be published in India. The monthly covered mainly cultural and historical issues.
Contents
"Azdarar" continued for a year and a half until March 1796. During that period, Father Shmavonian published 18 issues, 965 pages in total.
Commemorative stamp
The Armenian postal authorities published a stamp denominated as 30 Armenian drams in 1994 in commemoration of Father Shmavonian and his Azdarar publication's second centennial.
New publication
Azdarar is a publication under the same name has resumed in 2007, in Kolkata (Calcutta), India, after 210 years of the cessation of the original publication, as an initiative of Armenian-American astrophysicist Nora Andreasyan-Tomas.
Azdarar is being published monthly in Calcutta, whereas the original historic publication was in Madras. It is a color magazine of average of 40 colour pages.