The university was founded in 1929 by the entrepreneur Annamalai Chettiyar in the aftermath of the Montagu–Chelmsford Reforms. In the early 1920s, to serve the downtrodden and to promote Tamil literature, Rajah Sir S. R. M. Annamalai Chettiar founded Sri Minakshi College, Sri Minakshi Tamil College and Sri Minakshi Sanskrit College in a rural setup at Chidambaram. In 1928, Rajah Sir S. R. M. Annamalai Chettiar agreed with the local government to hand over the above said institution for establishing a university.