[1] Aghayan was born in the village of Bolnisi (also known as Bolnis-Khachen)[2][3] in the Tiflis Governorate (now Georgia) of the Russian Empire.

In Moscow he became a collaborator of Stepanos Nazarian, the founder of the journal Hyusisapayl (Aurora borealis), also working as typesetter.

He was a hunter, a factory worker and a farm labourer before he joined fellow writer Mikayel Nalbandian in the Armenian cultural and intellectual revival of the 19th century.

He taught in Akhaltskha, Alexandropol, Yerevan and Shushi, and supervised Armenian parochial schools of Georgia.

He was maternal grandfather of Lazar Sarian and Anatoly Eiramdzhan and father-in-law of the painter Martiros Saryan.