One of Shahamirian's closest collaborators and sources of influence was Movses Baghramian. Shahamirian, his son Hakob, Movses Baghramian, Mikayel Khojajanian and other Armenians in Madras together formed what is known as the Madras group of Armenian intellectuals and founded a printing press there in 1771/72. The writings produced by the Madras group were the first Armenian works to express the ideals of the European Enlightenment. One of the first works published by the Madras printing press was ("New Booklet called Exhortation") by Hakob Shahamirian (or Movses Baghramian, according to some scholars), which preaches the new and revolutionary ideals of constitutional democracy. The work provided a political, rather than religious, explanation for the misfortunes of the Armenian nation and the loss of Armenian statehood and called on Armenians to engage in armed rebellion against their Ottoman and Persian overlords. Shahamir Shahamirian is best remembered today for authoring (, "A Book called Snare of Glory"), which outlined the social, political and economic order for a future independent Armenian state. The proposed constitution in the work envisioned Armenia as a parliamentary republic with constitutionally guaranteed rights and duties for its citizens and separation of church and state. Article three of the proposed constitution reads:
