Muttayil Govindamenon Sankara Narayanan, commonly known as M. G. S. Narayanan (born 20 August 1932) is an Indian historian, academic and political commentator. He headed the Department of History at

Calicut University The University of Calicut, also known as Calicut University, is a state-run public university headquartered at Tenhipalam in Malappuram district of the state of Kerala, India. Established in 1968, it is the first university to be set up in nor ...

(Kerala) from 1976 to 1990. and served as the Chairman (2001–03) of the

Indian Council of Historical Research The Indian Council of Historical Research (ICHR) is a captive body of the Ministry of Education, Government of India established by an Administrative Order. The body has provided financial assistance to historians and scholars through fellowshi ...

Early life

Muttayil Govindamenon Sankara Narayanan was born at

Ponnani Ponnani () is a municipality in Ponnani Taluk, Malappuram District, in the state of Kerala, India. It serves as the administrative center of the Taluk and Block Panchayat of the same name. It is situated at the estuary of Bharatappuzha (Riv ...

Malabar district Malabar District, also known as Malayalam District, was an administrative district on the southwestern Malabar Coast of Bombay Presidency (1792-1800) and Madras Presidency (1800-1947) in British India, and independent India's Madras State (19 ...

on 20 August 1932.MGS Narayanan (Profile) University of Calicut
/ref> He had his early education at

Parappanangadi Parappanangadi, , is a major town and a municipality in Tirurangadi taluk of Malappuram district, Kerala, India. It is a coastal town located close to the Arabian sea. Parappanangadi railway station is one of the oldest railway stations in Kera ...

, Ponnani,

Calicut Kozhikode (), also known in English as Calicut, is a city along the Malabar Coast in the state of Kerala in India. It has a corporation limit population of 609,224 and a metropolitan population of more than 2 million, making it the second la ...

and

Thrissur Thrissur (), formerly Trichur, also known by its historical name Thrissivaperur, is a city and the headquarters of the Thrissur district in Kerala, India. It is the third largest urban agglomeration in Kerala after Kochi and Kozhikode, and t ...

. He later moved to Madras (present day

Chennai Chennai (, ), formerly known as Madras ( the official name until 1996), is the capital city of Tamil Nadu, the southernmost Indian state. The largest city of the state in area and population, Chennai is located on the Coromandel Coast of th ...

) to pursue his master's degree in history from

Madras Christian College Madras Christian College (MCC) is a liberal arts and sciences college in Chennai, India. Founded in 1837, MCC is one of Asia's oldest extant colleges. The college is affiliated to the University of Madras but functions as an autonomous institu ...

. M. G. S. married Premalatha in August, 1965. He was awarded Ph. D. by the University of Kerala in 1973. His Ph.D. thesis was published two decades later as ''Perumals of Kerala'' in 1996 by Calicut University Press. It empirically reconstructed the history of Kerala during the Ceras between 800 and 1124 CE in a meticulous exercise, states Rajan Gurukkal. His study relies on interpreting inscriptions and the literature from that period.

Arthur Llewellyn Basham Arthur Llewellyn Basham (24 May 1914 – 27 January 1986) was a noted historian, Indologist and author of a number of books. As a Professor at the School of Oriental and African Studies, London in the 1950s and the 1960s, he taught a number of fa ...

praised his work as "one of the ablest and most thorough Indian theses I have examined".

Career

M. G. S. Narayanan has worked at the

Kerala University University of Kerala, formerly the University of Travancore, is a state-run public university located in Thiruvananthapuram, the state capital of Kerala, India. It was established in 1937 by a promulgation of the Maharajah of Travancore, Chit ...

University of Calicut The University of Calicut, also known as Calicut University, is a State ownership, state-run public university headquartered at Tenhipalam in Malappuram district of the state of Kerala, India. Established in 1968, it is the first university to ...

and retired in 1992 as Dean of Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities, a post he held from 1970. He was Professor and Head of the Department of History in Calicut University from 1976 to 1990. He was the general secretary of Indian History Congress during 1982–1985, and a visiting fellow at the Institute of Oriental Studies, Moscow University in 1991. He served as Member-Secretary of the Indian Council of Historical Research during 1990–1992. Narayanan is known for his Brahmin Oligarchy model and he was one of the many critics of

Burton Stein Burton Stein (1926 – April 26, 1996) was an American historian, whose area of specialization was India. Life and career Stein was born and grew up in Chicago, Illinois and served in the Second World War, before commencing tertiary study at the n ...

's "segmentary state" model for the Chola Empire. With Veluthat, Narayanan proposed that

Bhakti movement The Bhakti movement was a significant religious movement in medieval Hinduism that sought to bring religious reforms to all strata of society by adopting the method of devotion to achieve salvation. Originating in Tamilakam during 6th centur ...

brought together "kings, Brahmanas and the common people" in harmony between 6th and 10th-century, but more as an "illusion of equality", writes Karashima. Others scholar have proposed different views, noting certain defects in his model. According to T. K. Rajalakshmi writing in ''Frontline'' in 2001 – a news weekly in India, Narayanan is a specialist in ancient history and "a believer in

Hindutva Hindutva () is the predominant form of Hindu nationalism in India. The term was formulated as a political ideology by Vinayak Damodar Savarkar in 1923. It is used by the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), the Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP), the ...

to the extent that he is a Hindu and an inheritor of a great tradition". Though he is close to BJP, states Rajalakshmi, he is not a hardliner. Narayanan stated that "there cannot be history without differences".T. K. Rajalakshmi. ''CONTROVERSY: Appointment and disappointment'' Frontline. Volume 18 - Issue 15, 21 Jul. – 3 Aug. 200

/ref>

Early life

Career

See also

References

Further reading