Muttayil Govinda Sankara Narayanan (20 August 1932 – 26 April 2025) was 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 no ...

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

Indian Council of Historical Research Indian or Indians may refer to: Associated with India * of or related to India ** Indian people ** Indian diaspora ** Languages of India ** Indian English, a dialect of the English language ** Indian cuisine Associated with indigenous peoples o ...

Early life

Muttayil Govindamenon Sankara Narayanan was born to Govinda Menon at

Ponnani Ponnani () is a Nagar Palika (Municipality), 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 est ...

Malabar district Malabar District, also known as British Malabar or simply Malabar was an administrative district on the southwestern Malabar Coast of Bombay Presidency (1792–1800), Madras Presidency (1800–1950) and finally, Madras State (1950–1956) in ...

on 20 August 1932. 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 Ke ...

, Ponnani,

Calicut Kozhikode (), also known as Calicut, is a city along the Malabar Coast in the state of Kerala in India. Known as the City of Spices, Kozhikode is listed among the City of Literature, UNESCO's Cities of Literature. It is the nineteenth large ...

and

Thrissur Thrissur (, ), Renaming of cities in India, 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 List of most populous urban agglomerations in Ke ...

. He later moved to Madras (present day

Chennai Chennai, also known as Madras (List of renamed places in India#Tamil Nadu, its official name until 1996), is the capital city, capital and List of cities in Tamil Nadu by population, largest city of Tamil Nadu, the southernmost states and ...

) 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 institut ...

. Narayanan married Premalatha in August 1965. He was awarded a Ph.D. by the

University of Kerala University of Kerala (formerly known as University of Travancore) is a state-run public university in Thiruvananthapuram, the state capital of Kerala, India. It was established in 1937 by a promulgation of the Maharajah of Travancore, Chithi ...

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 ''Kerala'' was first epigraphically recorded as ''Cheras'' (Chera dynasty, Keralaputra) in a 3rd-century BCE rock inscription by the Mauryan emperor Ashoka of Magadha (Mahajanapada), Magadha. It was mentioned as one of four independent kingdoms ...

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 British historian, Indologist and author. As a professor at the School of Oriental and African Studies, London in the 1950s and the 1960s, he taught a number of famous historians ...

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

Career

M. G. S. Narayanan worked at the

Kerala University University of Kerala (formerly known as University of Travancore) is a state-run public university in Thiruvananthapuram, the state capital of Kerala, India. It was established in 1937 by a promulgation of the Maharajah of Travancore, Chithira ...

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 was 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 The Chola Empire, which is often referred to as the Imperial Cholas, was a medieval thalassocratic empire based in southern India that was ruled by the Chola dynasty, and comprised overseas dominions, protectorates and spheres of influence ...

. 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 Bhakti, devotion to achieve salvation. Originating in Tamilakam during 6t ...

brought together "kings, Brahmanas and the common people" in harmony between 6th and 10th-century, but more as an "illusion of equality", writes Karashima. Other scholars 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 was a specialist in ancient history and "a believer in

Hindutva Hindutva (; ) is a Far-right politics, far-right political ideology encompassing the cultural justification of Hindu nationalism and the belief in establishing Hindu hegemony within India. The political ideology was formulated by Vinayak Da ...

to the extent that he is a Hindu and an inheritor of a great tradition". Though he was close to the

Bharatiya Janata Party The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP; , ) is a political party in India and one of the two major List of political parties in India, Indian political parties alongside the Indian National Congress. BJP emerged out from Syama Prasad Mukherjee's ...

, states Rajalakshmi, he was 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 August 200

/ref> Narayanan died on 26 April 2025, at the age of 92.

Early life

Career

See also

References

Further reading