Munnar

History of Munnar

Munnar is a young town on very old hills. For centuries the slopes belonged to the forest and to the Muthuvan people; within a few decades of a lease signed in 1877 they were covered in tea estates, with their own factories, a hill railway and an aerial ropeway. Most of what a visitor sees today, from the clipped tea rows to the stone church, comes from that short, intense stretch of history.

Why it is called Munnar

The name joins two words, munnu (three) and aaru (river), in Malayalam and Tamil: the town stands where three rivers meet, the Muthirapuzha, the Nallathanni and the Kundala. The first British survey of the area, by Benjamin Swayne Ward in 1816–1817, camped at that confluence.

Before the tea: the Muthuvan and the Poonjar rajas

The early history of the hills is not well documented. Their first known inhabitants were the Muthuvan, a forest community, and the Sri Subramanya temple in Old Munnar is said to have been a Muthuvan shrine long before the plantations, later restored by members of the Travancore royal family. On the ridges around Marayoor, 40 km away, stand muniyara, megalithic burial chambers up to two thousand years old.

Politically the hills lay inside the kingdom of Travancore, but the land itself was jenmam, hereditary property of the Poonjar royal family, who held it as absolute landlords. Kerala Tourism tells their origin story as a legend of flight: the family descends from Manavikrama, a Pandya king of Madurai, who escaped through a secret tunnel when his fort was betrayed, carrying the family treasure, and whose son later bought the small kingdom of Poonjar and built a Meenakshi temple on the Meenachil river.

From lease to tea town: the key dates

The plantation era in short.

1877: the Poonjar lease
John Daniel Munro, a British official who came to settle a border dispute between Travancore and Madras, leased about 136,600 acres of the Kanan Devan hills from the Poonjar raja Rohini Thirunal Kerala Varma, for ₹3,000 a year and a ₹5,000 deposit.
1879: the planting society
Munro formed the North Travancore Land Planting and Agricultural Society, whose members tried coffee, cardamom, cinchona and sisal before settling on tea.
1880: the first tea
A. H. Sharp planted about 50 acres of tea at Parvathy, now part of the Seven Mallay estate.
1895–1897: Finlay and Kannan Devan
James Finlay and Company bought 33 independent estates, and the Kannan Devan Hills Produce Company was formed in 1897 to run them.
1902–1924: a railway in the hills
A bullock-drawn monorail, replaced in 1908 by a 2-foot narrow-gauge steam line, carried tea from Munnar and Madupatty to Top Station, where a ropeway lowered it to "Bottom Station" for the carts to Bodinayakkanur. The Madupatty factory dates from 1902 and Christ Church from 1910.
1924: the great flood
A disastrous monsoon brought landslides and floods that redrew parts of the landscape, killed people and destroyed the railway, which was never rebuilt. Life returned to normal within a few months and many estates were replanted; tea now went down by ropeway, and the Kundaly Valley ropeway was completed in 1926.
1964–1983: Tata
Tata entered a collaboration with Finlay in 1964; Tata Tea Ltd was formed in 1983.
1971: land back to the state
The Kannan Devan Hills (Resumption of Lands) Act returned the hills to the Government of Kerala; Kannan Devan Hills has been a revenue village since.
2005: owned by the workers
On 1 April 2005 Tata Tea handed most of its Munnar plantations to the new Kanan Devan Hills Plantations Company (KDHP), which describes itself as the largest employee-owned tea company in the world.

Where to see the history today

The Tea Museum at Nallathanni, run by KDHP, keeps a 1905 tea roller and a 1913 granite sundial, and its demonstration line shows how the leaf is processed. KDHP also opens its working Madupatty factory, the one from 1902, on the Top Station road. Christ Church, the stone church of 1910 built by the planter community, still has its original stained glass and brass plaques to High Range planters. At Top Station you stand at the old railhead where the tea went down the cliff. In town, the former Munnar railway station building is now a Tata Tea regional office, and the Aluminium Bridge near Munnar was once a railway bridge.

FAQ

Who planted tea in Munnar first?

A. H. Sharp, a European planter, in 1880, on about 50 acres at Parvathy, now part of the Seven Mallay estate.

Why is Munnar so called?

Munnar means "three rivers": the town stands at the meeting of the Muthirapuzha, Nallathanni and Kundala.

Who was the king of Munnar?

There was no king of Munnar itself. The hills were part of Travancore, but the land belonged to the Poonjar royal family, whose raja leased it to John Daniel Munro in 1877.

Was there ever a railway in Munnar?

Yes, a goods line for tea: a monorail from 1902 and then a narrow-gauge railway to Top Station, destroyed by the 1924 flood and never rebuilt.

What is Munnar famous for?

Tea. KDHP alone covers 23,783 hectares of the High Ranges, and the clipped tea slopes around town are the reason most people come.

Sources (9)

Facts checked: 15 October 2026. Prices and hours are approximate; check locally.

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