Periyar Maniammai Institute of Science and Technology has its origin from Periyar Maniammai College of Technology for Women established in 1988, by the Periyar Maniammai Educational and Charitable Society, Chennai. The Periyar Maniammai College of Technology for Women, named after the great social reformer of the twentieth century, E.V.Ramasamy, popularly known as Thanthai Periyar and his philanthropic wife Annai Maniammaiar, has to its credit of being the first Women’s Engineering College in the world. Institutionalizing the lofty ideals of Periyar by paving the way for women’s emancipation through providing increased access to higher education in Science and Technology and encouraging their participation in Social, National and Global development were the primary objective of the Institution.

The College was started with the approval of All India Council for Technical Education, New Delhi and initially affiliated to Bharathidasan University and later to Anna University, Chennai from 2001. Since August 17, 2007 it has been functioning as Deemed to be University with the approval of the UGC and Ministry of Human Resources, New Delhi.

The Institution is situated at 10 km towards west from Thanjavur and 45 km on the east from Tiruchirapalli and is easily accessible by road, rail and air. The Periyar Maniammai Institute of Science and Technology Trust has in its ambit a number of colleges, schools at Thanjavur, Tiruchirapalli, Chennai and New Delhi in its own premises. The university has been steadily growing by leaps and bounds with adequate infrastructure and other facilities.The built-up areas in the main campus at Vallam is around 90,000 Sq.m.