He pioneered the new field of Indology involving the study of Indian culture, history, music and traditions from a historical perspective.
The forgotten tomb of Shahaji (Shivaji's father) was traced by M. H. Krishna during his years at the Mysore Archaeological Department.
His years at the Archaeology Department saw him churn out many of excavation reports (close to 2000 inscriptions discovered) and these were later published in successive volumes of Epigraphia Carnatica.
[4] During Krishna's tenure at Bangalore, he was instrumental in cataloguing close to 6000 coins in the archives of the archaeology department there.
Ranga Iyengar was a Sanskrit scholar and a teacher to Nalwadi Krishna Raja Wodeyar during the Maharaja's childhood.
The then Vice Chancellor of University of Mysore Brajendranath Seal and Head of the Department of History, Maharaja College - Radha Kumud Mukherjee were impressed with M. H. Krishna's aptitude in Numismatics and Epigraphy and deputed him to Bangalore, Archaeology Office for the cataloguing of close to 6000 coins in their archives there (1920 -1922).
Apart from Gardiner, he was under the tutelage of L. D. Barnett, Sir Flinders Petrie, Eliot Smith, Seligman, W. J. Perry and Edvard Westermarck.
Upon his return to India, Krishna assumed charge in the history department of Maharaja College, Mysore.
The Mysore Government Archaeological Department, since its inception in 1885, was instrumental in discoveries of hundreds of inscriptions and copper plates.
He was among the few, apart from the Irish poet James Cousins to suggest to K. V. Puttappa that he should author poems, not in English as he had initially attempted, but instead to do so in his native tongue - Kannada.
[citation needed] Krishna suffered from elevated blood pressure and diabetes for nearly a decade and a half.