Muttayil Govindamenon Sankara Narayanan (Malayalam: മുറ്റയില്‍ ഗോവിന്ദമേനോന്‍ ശങ്കരനാരായണന്‍), born on 20 August 1932, more popularly known as MGS, is an Indian historian, academic and a former Chairman of the Indian Council of Historical Research (2001–03).He was Commonwealth Academic Staff Fellow, School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London (1974 –75); Visiting Fellow, Universities of Moscow and Leningrad (1991); Visiting Research Professor, Tokyo University of Foreign Studies, Tokyo (1994–95).Narayanan is among the few southern Indian historians known nationally and internationally.