->Pachu Kannan at 11:01, 3 November 2021

2021-11-03T11:01:44Z

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{{Short description|Indian historian}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=September 2018}}
{{Use Indian English|date=September 2018}}
{{Infobox person
| name = M. G. S Narayanan
| image = M.G.S Narayanan.jpg
| caption = Narayanan speaking at [[Kerala Literature Festival]], [[Kozhikode]] (2017)
| birth_name = Muttayil Govindamenon Sankara Narayanan
| birth_date = {{Birth date and age|df=yes|1932|08|20}}
| birth_place = [[Ponnani]], [[Malabar District]], [[Madras Presidency]], [[British India]]
| death_date =
| nationality = [[Republic of India|Indian]]
| occupation = Historian<br>Academic<br>Political Commentator
| known_for =
| notable_works = *''Cultural Symbiosis in Kerala'' (1972) <br>
*''Perumals of Kerala'' (1972)
*''Calicut: The City of Truth Revisited'' (2006)
| children = Vijay Kumar Narayanan and Vinaya Narayanan
| alma_mater = [[Madras Christian College]], [[University of Madras]] (Master's Degree)<br>[[University of Kerala]] (Doctoral Studies)
}}

'''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]] (Kerala) from 1976 to 1990.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-features/tp-metroplus/on-the-wrong-side-of-left/article28439585.ece|title=On the wrong side of Left?|date=2003-06-16|work=The Hindu|access-date=2019-10-22|language=en-IN|issn=0971-751X|archive-date=24 June 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210624202545/https://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-features/tp-metroplus/on-the-wrong-side-of-left/article28439585.ece|url-status=live}}</ref> and served as the Chairman (2001–03) of the [[Indian Council of Historical Research]].

==Early life==
Muttayil Govindamenon Sankara Narayanan was born at [[Ponnani]], [[Malabar district]] on 20 August 1932.<ref name="universityofcalicut.info">[http://www.universityofcalicut.info/frontier/backs/27profile.htm MGS Narayanan (Profile) University of Calicut] [https://web.archive.org/web/20181103062514/http://www.universityofcalicut.info/frontier/backs/27profile.htm]</ref>

He had his early education at [[Parappanangadi]], Ponnani, [[Calicut]] and [[Thrissur]]. He later moved to Madras (present day [[Chennai]]) to pursue his master's degree in history from [[Madras Christian College]]. M. G. S. married Premalatha in August, 1965.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/kozhikode/former-students-hold-birthday-bash-for-mgs/article24827121.ece|title=Former students hold birthday bash for MGS|author=Staff Reporter|date=2018-08-31|work=The Hindu|access-date=2018-11-03|language=en-IN|issn=0971-751X|archive-date=9 November 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201109092723/https://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/kozhikode/former-students-hold-birthday-bash-for-mgs/article24827121.ece|url-status=live}}</ref> He was awarded Ph. D. by the University of Kerala in 1973.<ref name="universityofcalicut.info" />

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 [[Chera/Perumals of Makotai|Ceras]] between 800 and 1124 CE in a meticulous exercise, states Rajan Gurukkal.<ref name="Gurukkal 2014 pp. 103–105"/><ref name="Subbarayalu 2014 pp. 399–403">{{cite journal | last=Subbarayalu | first=Y. | title=Book Review: M.G.S. Narayanan, Perumals of Kerala: Brahmin Oligarchy and Ritual Monarchy, Political and Social Conditions of Kerala under the Cera Perumals of Makotai (c. AD 800–1124) | journal=The Indian Economic & Social History Review | publisher=SAGE Publications | volume=51 | issue=3 | year=2014 | doi=10.1177/0019464614537142 | pages=399–403| s2cid=145738512 }}</ref> His study relies on interpreting inscriptions and the literature from that period.<ref name="Gurukkal 2014 pp. 103–105"/><ref name="Subbarayalu 2014 pp. 399–403"/> [[Arthur Llewellyn Basham]] praised his work as "one of the ablest and most thorough Indian theses I have examined".<ref name="Gurukkal 2014 pp. 103–105">{{cite journal | last=Gurukkal | first=Rajan | title=Book Review: M.G.S. Narayanan, Perumals of Kerala: Brahmin Oligarchy and Ritual Monarchy—Political and Social Conditions of Kerala Under the Cera Perumals of Makotai (c. AD 800–AD 1124) | journal=Indian Historical Review | publisher=SAGE Publications | volume=41 | issue=1 | year=2014 | doi=10.1177/0376983614521543 | pages=103–105| s2cid=143612532 }}</ref>

== Career ==
M. G. S. Narayanan has worked at the [[Kerala University]], [[University of Calicut]] and retired in 1992 as Dean of Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities, a post he held from 1970.<ref name="universityofcalicut.info" /> He was Professor and Head of the Department of History in Calicut University from 1976 to 1990.<ref name="universityofcalicut.info" /><ref name=Rajalakshmi/> 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.<ref name=Rajalakshmi/>

Narayanan is known for his Brahmin Oligarchy model<ref name=":2" />{{Rp|145–146}} and he was one of the many critics of [[Burton Stein]]'s "segmentary state" model for the Chola Empire.<ref name=":2">{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=fpdVoAEACAAJ|title=A Concise History of South India: Issues and Interpretations|last=Karashima|first=Noboru|date=2014|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=9780198099772|language=en|access-date=4 May 2021|archive-date=9 July 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210709190416/https://books.google.com/books?id=fpdVoAEACAAJ|url-status=live}}</ref>{{Rp|128}} With Veluthat, Narayanan proposed that [[Bhakti movement]] 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.<ref name=":2" />{{Rp|113}}

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]] 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".<ref name=Rajalakshmi>T. K. Rajalakshmi. ''CONTROVERSY: Appointment and disappointment'' Frontline. Volume 18 - Issue 15, 21 Jul. – 3 Aug. 2001 [https://web.archive.org/web/20181103062756/https://www.frontline.in/static/html/fl1815/18150940.htm]</ref>

== See also ==

*[[K N Panikkar|K. N. Panikkar]]

==References==
{{reflist}}

==Further reading==
* M. G. S. Narayanan's autobiography serialised in ''[[Madhyamam Weekly]]'': [https://archive.is/20150412074631/http://www.madhyamam.com/weekly/3077 1], [https://archive.is/20150412074643/http://www.madhyamam.com/weekly/3087 2], [https://archive.is/20150412074631/http://www.madhyamam.com/weekly/3095 3], [https://archive.is/20150412074644/http://www.madhyamam.com/weekly/3104 4], [https://archive.is/20150412074631/http://www.madhyamam.com/weekly/3116 5], [https://archive.is/20150412074629/http://www.madhyamam.com/weekly/3135 6], [https://web.archive.org/web/20150417054433/http://www.madhyamam.com/weekly/3157 7]

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Narayanan, M. G. S.}}
[[Category:Living people]]
[[Category:Historians of India]]
[[Category:University of Calicut faculty]]
[[Category:University of Kerala alumni]]
[[Category:1932 births]]
[[Category:20th-century Indian historians]]
[[Category:Malayalam-language writers]]
[[Category:English-language writers from India]]
[[Category:Writers from Kerala]]
[[Category:People from Malappuram district]]
[[Category:21st-century Indian historians]]
[[Category:Indian male essayists]]
[[Category:20th-century Indian essayists]]

M. G. S. Narayanan - Revision history

->Pachu Kannan at 11:01, 3 November 2021