Periyar Arts College is situated on the shore of Bay Bengal at Devanampattinam village, 200 km south of Chennai on the East Coast Road. The College has been named after "Thanthai Periyar" E.V. Ramasamy, the Great rationalist and social reformer. The college is fully funded and managed by Government of Tamil Nadu.
Periyar Government Arts College was started in 1964 at Cuddalore. Initially 360 students were admitted in four different branches in the Pre-University course. In its inception, the college functioned in the District Board Buildings and then the Hon’ble Chief Minister of Madras Thiru M. Bakthavasalam inaugurated the college on 06.09.1964. In 1965, the college was upgraded to First Grade College. B.Com. course was started in 1973. B.Sc. Chemistry and Physics were started in 1979. B.Sc. Botany and B.A History were introduced in 1980. B.Sc. Zoology was started in 1983. The college introduced M.Com degree course in 1986. B.Sc. Industrial Chemistry was introduced during the academic year 1996-97 with the financial assistance of U.G.C. B.Sc. Computer Science and M.Sc. Mathematics courses were also started in the same year.