Eternal Rest for Historian Prof.M.G.S.

Former Chairman of the Indian Council of Historical Research appointed by former Union MHRD Minister Dr. Murali Manohar Joshi and former Professor and Head, Department of History, Calicut University was laid to rest on the 27th April 2025 at the age of 92.  He was living in Malaparambu Housing Colony, Kozhikode ever since his retirement in 1992 from the Calicut University.  He was Visiting Professor in Mangalore and M.G. Universities besides holding a Visiting Professorship in London, Moscow Tokyo and Mexico Universities.  He went to London on a British Commonwealth Fellowship.  For criticising his communist Professors in Moscow, he was thrown out before the expiry of the term.

It was with Padmabhushan B.B.Lal and K.N.Dikshit (ex.Joint Director of ASI) that he began to dig out the temple in Babari Masjid.  The work of excavation begun by ASI Director Padmasri K.K.Muhammed brought to light certain temple parts inside the Babari Masjid.  This team work was taken as concrete proof by the Supreme Court of India in decreeing the Babari Masjid as a place where Ramajanmabhoomi was buried deep.  During MGS’s early academic phase 1970-90 he was active in Indian History Congress and he rose to become its Secretary twice and a sectional President (Ancient India) once.  On the eve of his retirement he joined ICHR as Member Secretary but its Chairman Prof. Irfan Habib was intolerable and MGS resigned the post. MGS used to tell in public that Dr. Irfan used to summon Babari Masjid Committee Meetings in ICHR office.  This type of style followed by the Chairman compelled a self respecting historian like MGS to resign his post prematurely.

It was Padmavibhushan P.Parameswaran, Director of the Bharateeya Vichar Kendra, Thiruvananthapuram who recommended MGS for the ICHR Chairmanship.  But due to some misunderstanding in the reconstitution of ICHR, MGS resigned the post after two years.  Under Oommen Chandy Government in Kerala he joined the Centre for Heritage Studies (2011-14) as Director General.  Insufficiency in fund compelled him to withdraw from it.  During the last one decade MGS was totally concentrating in academic matters and more than a dozen books were published shedding light on Kerala History and Culture.  He exposed the psuedo historical research carried on by some scholars and they were compelled to revise their studies.

The lasting contribution of Muttayil Govinda Menon Sankaranarayanan is his Perumals of Kerala a Ph.D. in History from the Kerala University (1972) which was treated as enough to a D.Litt by the examiner Historian Prof.A.L.Basham of Australian National University.  This study based on epigraphical and numismatical sources enabled him to rewrite the ups and downs of medieval Chera History from 800 AD to 1124.  He revised some of the conclusions of his senior  Professors like K.V.Krishna Iyer, Elamkulam Kunjan Pillai and Padmabhushan Sreedhara Menon.  He treated the hundred years war in Kerala History as a myth.

He was able to synchronise the period of Jainism, Buddhism, Devadasi System, Jenmi System, Matrilinical system etc. in Kerala shedding light on its genesis, growth and development based on newly discovered epigraphical and Tamil literary sources.  Foundations of India, Cultural Symbiosis, Aryanization of Kerala, Reinterpretations of South Indian History and Culture, Zamorins of Calicut, Malabar History, History of Kozhikode are all but fresh studies which threw a flood of light on early and medieval Chera History.  Infact he redrew the map of early Kerala History in its diversities and vitalities and this could not be altered by any one easily for want of more proof.  From all temples and palaces he unearthed unexplored sources with which he stabilised and created a panorama of logical Kerala History.

Born (20-8-1932) and brought up in Ponnani (his paternal home) and Parappanangadi (maternal home) MGS was a product of Christian College, Tamparam, Chennai. His first Rank in MA History from the Madras University secured for him a lecturer’s post in Zamorins College, Kozhikode and later when the Calicut University sprang up in 1967 he became Reader, later Professor and Dean of Social Sciences.  In 2010 he was presented Prof.A.Sreedhara Menon Memorial Award in a meeting chaired by Parameswarji. On his navathy in 2022 a festschrift entitled “Some Perspectives on Indian History and Culture” (edited by Prof.TPS Nair) was presented to him consisting of over eighty articles.  MGS is survived by his wife Prema, one son and one daughter – all well settled.  His death is an irreparable loss to Clio the muse and truly he is the Ranke of Kerala History.  Pranamam to this historian par excellence.

Email: nair.tps@gmail.com