The story of Queen Ketevan begins in 1988-89, when a request came from the Georgian government seeking assistance in the search of the bone relics of the Queen which was brought to Old Goa by an Augustinian Friar in 1627 after she was put to death by Shah Abbas 1 of Persia on September 22,1624.
Since the late eighties, five, ASI teams have been involved in tracing the relics. In 2003, while carrying out scientific clearance, we stumbled upon a tomb stone at a small chapel between the first and second quadrangle. This was followed by research, cross reference and finally genetic analysis to conclusively trace the origin. Hence we have titled our work as 16 years of search and 10 years of research.
Today, we are happy that our findings have been backed up by an international publication, ‘Mitochondria’ in January 2014.
As a scientist and archaeologist I glean historical facts objectively. However, since Queen Ketevan has been beatified as a Saint in the Orthodox Christian pantheon, subjectivity is bound to crop up. Hence, when I was invited by the International Council of Museums (ICOM) to make a presentation of our research in September 2014 in Georgia, the pent-up emotions of the people was palpable.
The presentation was well received by a packed audience of scientist-museum curators, invited delegates and church representatives. Post the presentation, I was taken to the Khaketi Cathedral and received by the Bishop and offered prayers at the altar of St Ketevan.
Since 2005, we have been wanting to enact our historical research into a dance drama. The Ketevan Music Festival is a good beginning. I am in communication in my personal capacity with the Georgian Church to jointly choreograph a dance-drama in the future.
