Lying amidst the murmur of the wind coming down from the eastern hills, the roar of the Arabian Sea in the west and the murmur of the rivers in the north and south, Tanur Grama Panchayat came into existence in 1950 as per a government order. Later, it was divided into two panchayats, Tanur Nagar Panchayat and Tanur Grama Panchayat, but in 1964, these were merged again to form Tanur Panchayat. Tanur became a municipality on 1 November 2015.
There is an opinion that the name Thanniyur, which means "town with Thanni trees", was derived from the area where Thanni trees grew densely. It was a wide river that lay adjacent to the Palakkutyazhi estuary on the southern border of Thanoor, which was rich in rivers and trees. (Over time, the depth of the river became shallow and turned into wings, and the wings filled up and turned into fields.) There were many whirlpools in the rivers. The word for whirlpools is Tanuram in Sanskrit. The name Tanur may have been derived from Tanuram. This is another argument regarding the name.
During the reign of the king, the headquarters of the king who ruled Tanur was the then Rajaraja Mangalam, known today as Rayiramangalam, and the place where buttermilk was supplied to the royal family is known as present-day Morya.
There are records that the French had a colony on the coast of Tanur. That place, known as French Chappa, was a commercial center of about 5 acres. A large amount of coconut was exported from here. This place was a French territory for some time after independence. It was later taken over by the Kerala government. The Portuguese also had a colony in Tanur. Tanur is mentioned in the Portuguese novel Lusiad.
In Thanur, which has a rich transportation history, a road that runs from the south of the Beypore River through Thanur, Ponnani, and Veliyankode and ends at Kodungallur, and a road that starts from Thanur and goes to Palakkad via Puthiyangadi, Thirunavaya, Omallur, Thrithala, Kavilappara, and Lakkidi Kotta, and from there to Coimbatore and Chittoor-Thattamangalam to Kollankot is a testament to the above transportation history. A coastal road built during Tipu Sultan's military campaigns is still known as the Tipu Sultan Road.
Thanur, which was a major fisheries hub under the Madras Government, exported fish to foreign countries like Singapore, Malaysia, and Colombo. Chanthaparamba was another center of trade. Located to the west of the railway station, this place had a large market every Tuesday. In the market, where goods were brought and sold on buffalo carts, all other goods were available except animals.
During the Khilafat Movement of 1921, an independent parallel government was formed against the British government for the first time in Kerala and functioned in Tanur for a short time.
In 1923, a cholera epidemic struck the area, causing widespread misery. The Deodhar Malabar Restoration Team, part of the Servant of India Society led by Gopalakrishna Gokhale, visited Tanur and found that the cause of the unrest was the lack of education. They purchased land from the Rs. 35,000/- brought for relief work and built a school in a part called Keraladhiswarapuram. Its name was Higher Elementary School. Before this, there were schools in Shobha Parampal as Lower Elementary School under the name Hindu Board School and in Kattilangai as Board Compulsory Hindu Elementary School.
When cholera, which killed thousands of people, spread again in the region in 1942, disease prevention and health care programs were vigorously carried out. Untouchability generally remained in the social sphere. With the temple entry proclamation, the observance of untouchability decreased. The landlord tenant system had existed in these places for a long time.
The railway line from Tirur to Beypore, which started in 1861, played a major role in the transportation sector of Thanur. The postal service, which came into existence in 1895, was first moved to a sub-office and later to a Cochin sub-office branch and then to a sub-office again. This institution, which started functioning in its own building in 1980, has been rendering commendable service in the field of information and communication.
In Tanur Panchayat, Tanur village was divided in 1985 and the villages of Pariyapuram and Tanur were formed. During the Khadi campaign, a cooperative society was formed in Kattilangadi and Khadi yarn was brought from North India and woven.
The Tanur Travel Library, which started with just 9 books, has made a valuable contribution to the cultural scene of Tanur. Prominent figures in the literary and cultural scene of Kerala, from V.T. Bhattathiripad to M.T. Vasudevan Nair, have visited here and recorded their comments in their visit reports. The initiator and leader of this great movement was the prominent Khadi activist, Tanur P. Parameswaran Master. He is also the person who won the first P.N. Panicker Award for library workers.
Islahul Uloom Arabi College, one of the first Muslim religious studies centers in India, was established in Tanur. The Holy Book (RA) kept here is world famous. Apart from this, the only other such book in the world is in Egypt. The Thrikkaikkattu Matha, founded by a disciple of Adi Shankara, the Thrikkaikkattu Shiva Temple (the correct form is Thrikkaikkattiya), which is said to have been built by Perumthachan, the Ganapathiyangava Temple in Pariyapuram, which has rare murals, and the Buddhist Vihara Center are some of the notable features of Thanur.
Many foreigners work in the business and industrial sectors of Tanur. Perhaps it is because of the willingness to welcome them warmly and provide them with the necessary support and uplift them that an expression has been coined, "Vannore ninnavana ponnara Tanur".
As per Government Order No. 152/2015/Tasvabhava dated April 30, 2015, Tanur Grama Panchayat became Tanur Municipality on November 1, 2015.
