Thiruvananthapuram/Kozhikode | M G S Narayanan, an eminent historian, academic and former chairman of the Indian Council of Historical Research (ICHR), died at his residence in Malaparamba, Kozhikode, on Saturday due to age-related ailments, family sources said.

He was 93. He is survived by wife, son and daughter.

One of India's most reputed historians, he headed the department of history at the University of Calicut from 1976 to 1990 and served as ICHR chairman from 2001-2003.

Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan condoled the death of Narayanan, saying it was a great loss at a time when organised efforts are being made to misinterpret and rewrite history for narrow interests.

"MGS adopted a different path from the traditional historical writing by comprehensively analysing documents and interpreting them scientifically," the CM said in his message.

The CM said Narayanan did not try to completely reject myths, but analysed the social role they played and made them a part of history.

"Narayanan played a major role in shaping history and historiography as a form of knowledge and contributed writings to society that could be studied and analysed again," he said.

While at one point he expressed strong disagreement with the Left, he later strongly criticised the right-wing pressure to subordinate history writing to narrow interests, the CM said.

"In 2015, he protested in strong language along with other historians against the growing intolerance under the Sangh Parivar rule in the country," Vijayan recalled in his message.

Narayanan, who left a deep imprint on the field of Indian historiography, was famous through his PhD thesis, ‘Perumals of Kerala' which examined Kerala's socio-political history from the 9th to the 12th centuries.

From 1976, he was active in the Indian History Congress and led multiple historical research projects in collaboration with the ICHR. He also worked as a visiting professor at several universities in India and abroad.

Narayanan focused on Kerala history, the history of Tamilakam, ancient Indian history and the methodology of historiography.

He had mentored over a thousand students and supervised many postgraduate research projects. With more than 200 published articles in Malayalam and English, he made historical scholarship more accessible to readers through his literary flair.

He had also served as a Commonwealth Academic Staff Fellow at the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London and as visiting fellow at the University of Moscow and the Institute of Oriental Studies in Leningrad.