26-04-2025
MGS Narayanan, ex-ICHR chairman who offered a new perspective on Kerala's history, no more
Renowned historian and former chairperson of the Indian Council of Historical Research (ICHR) Dr M G S Narayanan died at his residence in Kozhikode on Saturday. He was 92.
Narayanan conducted extensive research on Kerala's history, offering a new perspective and interpretation, and authored several works, including on the state's Aryanisation.
Hailing from Ponnani in Malappuram, Muttayil Govidan Menon Sankara Narayanan, who was later known as MGS in the corridors of historical research, began his career as a faculty at Guruvayurappan College in Kozhikode after obtaining masters in history.
In 1968, he joined the University of Calicut as a lecturer and headed the history department from 1970 until his retirement in 1992.
During that time, he was instrumental in establishing a specialised library and a museum of Kerala History and Culture. During his illustrious career as a historian, Narayanan served as visiting faculty at several national and international academic centres.
He served as the chairman of ICHR from 2001 to 2003. Narayanan had been closely associated with the Indian History Congress from the 1970s and served at its various bodies for the next three decades. He became the president of the Indian History and Cultural Society in 2001.
He also played a key role in establishing and promoting the South Indian History Congress, the Epigraphical Society of India, and the Place Name Society of India. His publications include three volumes of sources for Kerala History and a compilation of extracts from research works in the last hundred years of the Malabar region in Kerala. He discovered and published a Brahmi inscription of Bindusara from Sanchi, and several medieval Vattezhuttu inscriptions of Kerala.
