Daniel Chonkadze ( ka, დანიელ ჭონქაძე) (1830 – June 16, 1860) was a

Georgian Georgian may refer to: Common meanings * Anything related to, or originating from Georgia (country) ** Georgians, an indigenous Caucasian ethnic group ** Georgian language, a Kartvelian language spoken by Georgians **Georgian scripts, three scrip ...

novelist primarily known for his resonant

novella A novella is a narrative prose fiction whose length is shorter than most novels, but longer than most short stories. The English word ''novella'' derives from the Italian ''novella'' meaning a short story related to true (or apparently so) facts ...

''Suramis tsikhe'' ("

Surami Fortress Surami ( ka, სურამი) is a small town ('' daba'') in Georgia’s Shida Kartli region with the population of 7,492. It is a popular mountain climatic resort and a home to a medieval fortress. Location Surami is located on the southern ...

"). Chonkadze was born to a peasant family near

Dusheti Dusheti () is a town in Georgia (country), Georgia, the administrative center of Dusheti Municipality, in the Mtskheta-Mtianeti mkhare, region, 54 km northeast of the nation's capital of Tbilisi. History Dusheti is on both banks of the small ...

. His native village housed a mixed

- Ossetian community, a prerequisite for the future writer's lively interest in both Georgian and Ossetian folk traditions. Educated at the seminaries of

Vladikavkaz Vladikavkaz (russian: Владикавка́з, , os, Дзæуджыхъæу, translit=Dzæwdžyqæw, ;), formerly known as Ordzhonikidze () and Dzaudzhikau (), is the capital city of the North Ossetia-Alania, Republic of North Ossetia-Alania, Ru ...

and

Tbilisi Tbilisi ( ; ka, თბილისი ), in some languages still known by its pre-1936 name Tiflis ( ), is the Capital city, capital and the List of cities and towns in Georgia (country), largest city of Georgia (country), Georgia, lying on the ...

, Chonkadze then taught

Ossetic Ossetian (, , ), commonly referred to as Ossetic and rarely as Ossete (), is an Eastern Iranian language that is spoken predominantly in Ossetia, a region situated on both sides of the Greater Caucasus. It is the native language of the Ossetia ...

Stavropol Stavropol (; rus, Ставрополь, p=ˈstavrəpəlʲ) is a city and the administrative centre of Stavropol Krai, Russia. As of the 2021 Census, its population was 547,820, making it one of Russia's fastest growing cities. It was known as ...

and Tbilisi in the 1850s. Simultaneously he served as a church official, but would later abandon his clerical status. Much of his work was on Georgian and Ossetic folklore. He authored an unfinished

Russian Russian(s) refers to anything related to Russia, including: *Russians (, ''russkiye''), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries *Rossiyane (), Russian language term for all citizens and peo ...

-Ossetic dictionary, and wrote down a collection of Ossetic proverbs using an

alphabet An alphabet is a standardized set of basic written graphemes (called letters) that represent the phonemes of certain spoken languages. Not all writing systems represent language in this way; in a syllabary, each character represents a syll ...

invented by Professor Andreas Sjögren for the Ossetians. For this reason, he is considered by some to have been "a founder-father of Ossetic literature".

Rayfield, Donald Patrick Donald Rayfield OBE (born 12 February 1942, Oxford) is an English academic and Emeritus Professor of Russian and Georgian at Queen Mary University of London. He is an author of books about Russian and Georgian literature, and about Josep ...

(2000), '' The Literature of Georgia: A History'': 2nd edition, p. 153. Routledge, Chonkadze’s first and last published work, ''Suramis tsikhe'', garnered a long-lasting success. Published in 1859/60 in the Georgian literary journal ''Tsiskari'' ("Dawn"), the novella is a mixture of folklore, history, political protest, and romantic drama in which Chonkadze passionately attacks

serfdom Serfdom was the status of many peasants under feudalism, specifically relating to manorialism, and similar systems. It was a condition of debt bondage and indentured servitude with similarities to and differences from slavery, which develop ...

. For censorship reasons, the tale was given a medieval setting filled with allegories. The contemporary socio-political system is symbolized by the crumbling Surami fortress that requires a living person to be buried within its walls to stand firm. The novel was filmed by the eminent

Armenia Armenia (), , group=pron officially the Republic of Armenia,, is a landlocked country in the Armenian Highlands of Western Asia.The UNbr>classification of world regions places Armenia in Western Asia; the CIA World Factbook , , and ''Ox ...

n filmmaker

Sergei Parajanov Sergei Parajanov, ka, სერგო ფარაჯანოვი, uk, Сергій Параджанов (January 9, 1924 – July 20, 1990) was an Armenian filmmaker. Parajanov is regarded by film critics, film historians and filmmakers t ...

who directed his multi-award-winning ''

The Legend of Suram Fortress ''The Legend of the Suram Fortress'' ( ka, ამბავი სურამის ციხისა) is a 1985 drama film directed by Georgian SSR-born Soviet-Armenian director Sergei Parajanov and Georgian actor Dodo Abashidze. Sergei Parajanov ...

'' in the 1980s. Chonkadze died of

tuberculosis Tuberculosis (TB) is an infectious disease usually caused by '' Mycobacterium tuberculosis'' (MTB) bacteria. Tuberculosis generally affects the lungs, but it can also affect other parts of the body. Most infections show no symptoms, in ...

at the age of thirty, and many of his writings were destroyed by his relatives as a potential source of infection. Daniel Chonkadze tomb

References

Chonkadze, Daniel
Dictionary of Georgian National Biography. Retrieved on February 19, 2007. {{DEFAULTSORT:Chonkadze, Daniel 1830 births 1860 deaths Male writers from Georgia (country) 19th-century deaths from tuberculosis 19th-century writers from Georgia (country) Novelists from Georgia (country) 19th-century novelists 19th-century male writers People from Mtskheta-Mtianeti Tuberculosis deaths in the Russian Empire Writers from the Russian Empire