An Irreparable Loss | MGS
Narayanan
Illustrious Alumnus of MCC
| A Soulful Tribute
27 April 2025 | #Reflections
#Newspaper
Today’s The Hindu
and The Times of India newspapers have prominently reported the passing
away of prominent Indian historian, academic, and political commentator from
Kerala, and an illustrious alumnus of MCC – Dr. MGS Narayanan, 92 years
old, at his residence in Kozhikode.
A towering figure in Indian
academic history, known for his extensive research and fresh perspectives on
the history of South India, particularly Kerala, he is credited with debunking
several historical myths and bringing a paradigm shift in the region’s
historiography.
What makes Kerala Unique? Its Cultural Synthesis or Its Cultural Symbiosis?
Eminent historian MGS Narayanan sets out to answer this question through his painstaking historiographic research.
This blogpost hence seeks to give a few
rare insights into the iconoclast that MGS really was, and how his bold and
unorthodox views to history have contributed immensely to historiography and
literary criticism.
Firstly, to begin with –
I chanced upon this rare and
engaging conversation between eminent historian M.G.S. Narayanan and Kesavan
Veluthat – in which MGS talks about why he chose history, how his history
professor at Madras Christian College influenced him, his career, etc.
Kesavan Veluthat: History was
not one of the more attractive subjects for intellectual pursuit in Kerala at
that time, in the 1950s, when you chose that. Historical writing and research
were marked by extreme backwardness. What attracted you towards this subject,
which was such a lacklustre subject at that time?
MGS: It was not history that attracted
me. It was science, which frightened me. Because in the lab in high school, we
used to see skeletons hanging and they (the students) used to catch hold of
frogs, kill them and dissect them, paste them on the walls and all that. This
frightened me. I couldn’t see blood or the suffering of people. So, in order to
escape that kind of science, I took history.
But then having taken
history,
I had a good experience of having one of the good teachers of history, K.V.
Krishna Iyer, who was the author of The Zamorins of Calicut. He wrote
that book in 1938.
Kesavan Veluthat: After your
distinguished performance in the Master’s in History from Madras Christian
College, you settled down as a teacher in one of the colleges in Kozhikode.
This was perhaps one of the most
productive periods of your literary activities, particularly the literary
criticisms that you had written. Some of the trailblazing essays that you
published on Vallathol (Vallathol Narayana Menon), on Asan (Kumaranasan), your
introduction to Edasseri’s collected poems. This was the product of this
period. How do you explain your shifted interest back to historical research
from this?
MGS: In Madras Christian College, we
had a professor of history, Dr Chandran Devanesan, who had a doctorate at that
time and who was highly celebrated as a historian.
And I was attached to Heber Hall in
Madras Christian College where he was also the warden. And not only he, his
wife was a very sociable lady, very glamorous and all that, they used to invite
us to their house and we used to spend very interesting hours in conversation
with them, discussing this and that, arguing about this and that. It was that
which gave me the training and the necessary equipment.
KV: Who was your guide?
MGS: Nobody knows. It was one
Professor V. Narayana Pillai who was the history professor in Kerala
University. So, I had to select a guide. He was the only one that was
available.
He had no doctorate or anything.
When I went to him with whatever work I was doing with the drafts and all that,
he said -
‘Don’t come to me with
this,
I don’t know anything about it. I have never done any research and I cannot
guide you properly. If you want to do any good work, there is a professor who
is a friend of mine, Elamkulam Kunjan Pillai. He is a Malayalam professor, you
go to him.’
I did not know him but with these
words of encouragement, I went and met him.
By the time I had done something—I
had questioned some of his work, criticised some of them. He went through [all
that]. He said, ‘Narayan, if you think this is the right thing, you go ahead.’
That was something unbelievable.
People had told me that his main work was moneylending. And he also asked me –
‘Do you want any help? I can give you
money. You don’t have to pay me interest or anything or [produce] any written
document.’
And when I said that I had
disagreement with some of his work, he said –
‘Okay, go ahead, you go ahead
with what you think is right.’
Now that was a good
beginning for me. And with this UGC grant, I started working.
Then, as far as the old scripts
were concerned, when I started studying, N.N. Kakkad was there. He was my
classmate, a poet, and a good friend. So, he came with the idea that he also
wanted to study old scripts and all that, and we started working together.
Gradually, I collected about 150
inscriptions of the Chera period, some of them are published, some of them are
unpublished. So, I collected them. I never published them in one volume or
anything but all of them, all the copies, all the texts were available to me.
So, I thought that that could be made the basis of a PhD thesis.
And when it was done, I
got the recommendation and appreciation of people like A.L. Basham.
Secondly, giving a peek into
one of his highly insightful books on what makes Kerala unique -
The book titled, Cultural
Symbiosis in Kerala, by MGS, published in the year 1972 by the Kerala
Historical Society is an eye-opener of sorts.
In his preface to the book, MGS
foregrounds the iconoclastic sweep that lies ahead in the pages to follow –
Says MGS –
Legends are often
presented as history in Kerala so that we have a distorted picture of her past.
These legends are mostly employed to glorify or condemn one community or
another.
Fragments of truth are mixed up with
legends by people who complain about the scarcity of source materials for a
study of history in Kerala.
In fact there is no such scarcity but
only the absence of proper study. The real obstacles for study and
understanding lie in the complexity of Vatteluttu script and the obscurity of
Old Malayalam language, not to speak of the lack of organised effort in this
line,
says MGS.
He adds on to say –
When two organisms of different
species live together and derive mutual benefit from the association, the
partnership is called symbiosis, a well-known phenomenon in the field of
natural science.
In ancient Kerala this type of
relationship is found to have existed in the case of heterogenous
religio-cultural groups like Hinduism, Jainism, Buddhism, Judaism, Christianity
and Islam.
The massive organism of Hindu
society offered hospitality to other creeds from time to time leading to a
situation where peaceful coexistence of different communities became necessary
and possible. This relationship was symbiotic but not parasitic, since it was
an agreement for mutual advantage. The outsiders were treated as paying guests
in Kerala.
These divergent
religio-cultural units were not formed as the consequence of military conquests
or even political conflicts in Kerala.
The Hindu monarchs and chieftains
of the post-Sangam period ruled over a fertile agricultural tract the peace and
safety of which were guaranteed by the Western Ghats on one side and the
Arabian sea on the other.
This land itself was a secret
shared between the sea and the mountain, an illegitimate child of the two
natural forces, protected by and provided for by them in a special way.
Therefore there was an assurance of plenty and of peace.
Thus Kulasekhara, the 9th century
Cera king, who was also a playwright of considerable merit, could proudly
declare that he was "master of Kerala made up of charming paddy fields."
The Cera kings presided over
a comparatively peaceful agrarian community with a Brahmin (Nambudiri) elite
which was dedicated to the classical ideal of Indian culture. At the same time
these kings had under them small urban groups of merchants and artisans with
non-Vedic or non-Hindu religious affiliations.
Brahminical Aryan society which
had taken roots in Kerala atleast by the 7th-8th centuries A. D. needed the
services of such foreign elements as it was allergic to the sea and full of
contempt for the 'vulgar' professions of industry and trade.
In ancient and medieval Europe spices
and pepper were essential to preserve the extra meat, produced by compulsory
cowslaughter in winter, and to make it palatable.
In Kerala the gold and silver of
Roman coinage was in such great demand that the chronology of Roman emperors
could now be reconstructed with the help of the Roman coins in Kerala hoards
alone. They continued in circulation for long centuries after the Roman empire!
In the long run there was beneficial
cultural exchange effected in an organic manner, i.e. the new culture was
absorbed silently by the major community through language, faith, art patterns,
and even race-mixture while the settlers borrowed the style of life and thought
from the local people.
To cite but one example, the
vocabulary of the Malayalam language, originally Dravidian in character, has
been enriched not only by Aryan, but also, though to a lesser extent, by
Semitic and European languages. On the other hand words in Old Malayalam, like
'arisi" (rice), have travelled from Kerala through Greece and Rome to
England and America.
Thus the multi-coloured carpet of
Kerala society has been woven through centuries with Hindu, Jain, Buddhist,
Jewish, Christian and Islamic elements coexisting without losing their identity
or even their contrast in character.
It must be remembered that each
religion brought not only a creed but also a specific way of life. The major
community was much influenced by these culture contacts-they received several
non-Indian strains of plants like tapioca, papaya, cashew and tobacco from the
Western world, Chinese pottery, gun powder and chillies from China, and the
best imported Arab horses, and Persian scents, and Greek wine, and also the
worst forms of sailor's diseases into the bargain.
Perhaps the best
characteristics that the Kerala people acquired were temperamental
adjustability and open-mindedness while the worst were a love of imitation and
lack of self-confidence.
The minority groups were
Indianised, Hinduised, and also Keralised. It may be pointed out that the Jains
were almost completely absorbed in the Nayar community and the Buddhists in the
Ilava community both typical of Kerala.
The Jews acquired a whole
division of Malayalam-speaking 'Black Jews' in spite of all their notorious
exclusiveness and racial arrogance. We have to add that Kerala was perchaps the
only land where they received religious and social tolerance for centuries.
The Christians received Hindu names,
rituals of worship like the use of native nilavilakku, and social customs like
the wearing of tali by the bride. The Muslims constructed temple-like mosques,
adopted matriliny in certain areas, and cultivated a new dialect of
ArabMalayalam with its own folk-literature.
A common pattern is found in
the early stages of the growth of non-Hindu pockets of culture in Kerala.
They are all associated with industry
or trade while the Hindus built up their culture on an agrarian economic base.
Jainism was cultivated by the immigrant traders from Mysore, Karnataka, and
Pandi and their pockets are usually found along the Ghat ranges in Wyanad,
Palghat, and Kulithura. (ibid)
Buddhism was at first popular
in the Alleppey-Kottayam region where it was probably brought by sea by the
early traders and toddy-tappers from Ceylon.
The Jews, Christians and Muslims
operated from the chief harbour towns along the shoreline. They all found a
hospitable soil and perhaps never faced religious persecution.
Atula, court-poet and chronicler of
the Mushaka king Srikantha in the beginning of the 11th century, aptly
describes the religious harmony in the capital city of Kolam in a single verse
in his Mushakavamsa kavya, the earliest known work of dynastic history in the
Sanskrit language. He states that "different deities coexisted in peace
like wild beasts forgetting their natural animosity in the vicinity of a holy
hermitage.
This phenomenon of the peaceful
coexistence of different creeds has been loosely called synthesis by several
scholars before.
Actually the abstract philosophical
concept with Hegelian overtones does not convey the right idea in this case.
It is true that different creeds
coexisted, but no creed could be described as the anti-thesis arising from the
thesis of Hinduism, and no synthesis had ever been formed. In fact there was no
confrontation but only accommodation and peaceful growth in parallel ways.
Barring Jainism and Buddhism
which practically disappeared, the other creeds continued to maintain their
identity but still there was more of mutual co-operation than conflict.
Therefore the present writer has borrowed the term symbiosis from natural
science to describe this historical phenomenon in Kerala.
Historians have generally indulged in
sentimental praise of the social harmony that existed in Kerala in the past but
few have attempted the analytical approach with a view to discover the secret
forces at work, their characteristic strength and limitations.
The location of the state on the Western
seaboard, at the centre of the international highway of sea-borne trade
connecting the East and the West, made it a meeting point of many worlds, a
melting pot of races and creeds, from early times.
At the dawn of history we find this
land fairly well-settled by Dravidians in a semi-tribal state of civilization.
There was a casteless community vertically divided into groups on the basis of
topography and occupation.
The first Aryan pioneers must have
peeped into this Dravidian country some five hundred or four hundred years
before the Christian era in the course of their southward expansion.
They were mostly agriculturists
lured by the possibility of cultivating virgin lands, and traders who risked
everything for money, and a few missionaries who carried forward the banner of
Vedic culture.
More and more Aryans followed in
the wake of the Jain exodus into the South under Chandragupta Maurya and the
Buddhist missionary activity organised by Asoka. They came in large numbers
representing the more advanced civilization of the North. Did their penetration
to the South result in bloodshed and rivalry between the Aryan and Dravidian
communities?
Possibly not, though an occasional
conflict of interest here and there cannot be ruled out completely. In spite of
the scanty nature of evidence we are able to ascertain the fact that they were
mostly men of peace and that they were generally welcomed by the ruling
chieftains as the heralds of prosperity and culture.
The caste system, and the
consequent separation between the communities, appear to have manifested
themselves only at a later stage.
Sangam works mention the
Brahmin pioneers with great respect as teachers councillors and ambassadors of
kings, as the makers of new codes of conduct, and the importers of higher
philosophy and literature. Sage Agasthya is the best symbol of the civilising
mission of the Aryan race.
The slowness and the
gradualness of the Aryan migration to the South, spread over many centuries,
must have made it less conspicuous and irritating than otherwise. The
new-comers as well as the old inhabitants appear to have recognised that the
process worked out to their mutual advantage.
The Ilava people, i. e. the
people of Ilam or Ceylon, came to settle down in Kerala in large numbers during
the Cera period. Many of them were skilled workmen as toddy-tappers, plying
their trade peacefully. But many others came as ‘Cekor’ or mercenary soldiers
in search of service and adventure.
We know from the records of the 9th and 10th centuries that the Ilava toddy-tappers were protected by guild rules.
The ‘Cekor’ who came from
Ceylon are celebrated in the colourful medieval folksongs of North Kerala.
Since both the skill in tapping and the skill in fighting were in great demand
in those days, the Ilavas got a warm reception though the rigidity attained by
the caste-system prevented them from rising in the social scale.
A complicating factor in
Kerala social pattern was introduced by the presence of small communities of
Israelite and Syrian origin through the ages. When exactly the Jewish merchants
came first to settle down in the ports in large numbers cannot be ascertained
though proof of the existence of trade between their kingdom and our parts can
be traced back to the Old Testament of the Bible.
According to Jewish legends a
colony of their people reached our shores following the destruction of
Jerusalem in 78 A. D. This may or may not be true. We have concrete epigraphic
evidence of Jewish settlements called Ancuvannam in Kollam city by the middle
of the 9th century.
How did the rulers and people of
Kerala happen to show such hospitality to these alien people professing alien
creeds and practicising alien customs? What lay behind such tolerance? Was it
the expression of the nation's innate generosity or a cosmopolitan philosophy?
There is another, more
significant, explanation. It is a fact that early Jews and Christians came to
this undeveloped semi-tribal Dravidian society, devoid of naval power and
coinage, with shiploads of gold and the promise of trade. The interests of
trade must have induced harmony in spite of religious and racial differences.
Therefore the Christian church
established by Mar Sapir Iso in the 9th century came under the protection of
the state and the king himself ordered Ilavar, Vellalar, Tachar, Vannar etc. to
co-operate with the settlers.
Thus it was probably the wealth of
Joseph Rabban, the Jew, which endeared him to the Cera king Bhaskara Ravi at
the beginning of the 11th ceutury when the country was organising resistance
against Cola aggression.
Therefore the king was ready to
grant the Jew and his successors in perpetuity the privileges of a chieftain
exempting him from several taxes. In other words, charity began at the market
place for it is difficult for us, with our inhuman caste system, to proclaim to
the world that charity begins at home.
The dominant elite of this
country possessed the wisdom to guarantee security of trade and freedom of
religion to the settlers who came in the wake of trade. The Brahmin-Kshatriya
prejudice against trade and navigation also induced them to leave such 'vulgar'
affairs in the hands of the foreigners.
Thus it was not difficult for
the Jews and Christians, and the Muslims and Chettis, and Europeans at a later
stage, to gain entry into the society of Kerala.
The ruling circles could not
anticipate that in the long run these numerically small groups who were
economically powerful could prosper and multiply and pose a threat to their
sacred empire.
MGS ends this introductory
essay on a ‘harmonious’ note. Says he –
Harmony in social life will be
achieved today not by reviving old habits or outloook but by developing a new
balance.
This does not mean that the
historical background is unimportant in solving the problem today. On the
contrary, understanding the past alone can help us to get out of the prejudices
which surround us and see reality face to face.
To conclude with a lovely
paragraph from Sahapedia on MGS –
For M.G.S., there are no sacred
cows, no sacrosanct assumptions and no unquestionable perspectives in his
approach to scholarship.
All evidence, all concepts and all
theoretical frameworks must be rigorously and repeatedly tested and verified.
Only a person of such great
humour and generosity could have provoked so many strong reactions, prodded so
many recalcitrant intellectual opponents, and promoted so many diverse and
controversial arguments—and still maintained the deep respect of colleagues in
India and abroad.
A spirit of benign
irreverence captures the approach that M.G.S. has passed on to this next
generation well.
Moreover, as a visionary
academic leader, he played a crucial role in establishing a specialized library
and museum of Kerala History and Culture at the University of Calicut. He was
Head of the Department of History at the University of Calicut from 1976 to
1990 and served as the Dean of the Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities as
well.
In short, M. G. S.
Narayanan
is remembered as a historian who significantly shaped the understanding of
Kerala’s past and was known for his independent and courageous approach to
historical inquiry.
Some of the titles of his books
(that he had either authored or edited) bear testimony to this fact –
Sample this –
Notes of Dissent: Essays
on Indian History, published in 2018.
This book brought together
ten essays – ‘essays that are characterized by their dissent to the commonly
accepted notions in the field, a first requirement for the growth of
knowledge.’
In this book, M.G.S.
Narayanan
and Kesavan Veluthat have written a seminal essay on the Bhakti Movement in
south India, an essay that was considered iconoclastic and highly subversive!
In this essay, MGS challenges the notion that it was an anti-caste movement,
and puts forth the argument that, the Bhakti Movement was, instead, ‘a
reflection and legitimation of the emerging feudal formation in South India’.
Irreverent History: Essays for M.G.S.
Narayanan
This is a festschrift that
brings together essays in honour of Professor M.G.S. Narayanana historian who
brought about a veritable shift in the paradigm of historiography in Kerala
through his painstaking epigraphical research that led to the publication of
his classic Perumals of Kerala (1972).
Finally, to sum it up from
the blurb to his book –
“In all of his work,
Narayanan
has pursued a relentless quest for truth apart from fads in theory and
expediencies in politics. That pursuit was carried out with a charm,
originality, and boldness that nettled some, but, more importantly, encouraged
many”.
Therein lies the USP of MGS!
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