The editors of Irreverent History begin the preface by stating that ‘the present work celebrates the life and scholarship of Professor Muttayil Govindamenon Sankara Narayanan’. Indeed one of the most celebrated historians of India is offered a bouquet of sixteen essays by scholars, many of them his students. This tribute to MGS as he is popularly known, actually celebrates introspective readings of the past which MGS always stood for. Those who are acquainted with his work know about his absolute commitment to historical method. His statements are always buttressed by solid evidence and his command over the different genre of sources is amazing. While reviewing MGS Narayanan’s masterpiece 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 ), Rajan Gurakkal commented that this book was a mine of new knowledge enabling other studies. His book could also be a model for writing regional history as most of the times while writing regional history authors’ own sentiment overpowers the rationality of writing from hard evidence. MGS’s book was ‘regional history at its best, written without any sentiments of regionalism, and placing Kerala within the larger context of south India’ as Kesavan Veluthat puts it. Why the book is called Irreverent History is clear from the opening essay which is written by Kesavan Veluthat, one of his senior students.
October 2015, volume 39, No 10