Summary
Vardan G. Devrikyan
In 1829 the ascent to summit of Mount Ararat with Professor Parrot had a radical impact upon the national-public and literary thinking of Khachatur Abovyan, because since the medieval times there had been a traditional prohibition of the ascent to summit of Mount Ararat upon which rested Noah’s Ark.
Similarly, since the Middle Ages Ani had been considered to be destroyed because of the curse and there was a superstition that it was impossible to live in Ani. Contrary to such a mood Abovyan in “The Wounds of Armenia” settled his principal hero Aghasi together with his friends in Ani putting forward the restoration plan of Ani as the Armenian statehood.
The article deals with the national-political and spiritual-cultural role attributed by Abovyan to Ani. This plan of Abovyan is considered parallel to the works and expressed ideas in the Armenian literature and public thought in his time and during next decades.