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Dosas are indigenous to South India,their exact birthplace in that region is a matter of conjecture.According to historian P. Thankappan Nair, dosa originated in the Udupi town of present-day Karnataka.[2] According to food historian K. T. Achaya, dosa (as dosai) was already in use in the ancient Tamil country around the 1st century AD, as per references in the Sangam literature.

In popular tradition, the origin of the dosa is linked to Udupi, probably because of the dish's association with the Udupi restaurants. Also, the original Tamil dosa was softer and thicker. The thinner and crispier version of dosa was first made in present-day Karnataka. A recipe for dosa (as dosaka) can be found in Manasollasa, a 12th-century Sanskrit encyclopedia compiled by Someshvara III, who ruled from present-day Karnataka.

After the Independence of India, South Indian cuisine became gradually popular in the North. In Delhi the Madras Hotel[6] in Connaught Place became a landmark that was one of the first restaurants to serve South Indian cuisine.It arrived in Mumbai with the Udupi restaurants in the 1930s. K. Krishna Rao, who ran Old Woodlands in Chennai during the early 1940s, is sometimes regarded to be the originator of the masala dosa in its modern form live dosa

A precursor of the modern idli is mentioned in several ancient Indian works. Vaddaradhane, a 920 CE Kannada language work by Shivakotiacharya mentions "iddalige", prepared only from a black gram batter. Chavundaraya II, the author of the earliest available Kannada encyclopaedia, Lokopakara (c. 1025 CE), describes the preparation of this food by soaking black gram in buttermilk, ground to a fine paste, and mixed with the clear water of curd and spices.The Western Chalukya king and scholar Someshwara III, reigning in the area now called Karnataka, included an idli recipe in his encyclopedia, Manasollasa (1130 CE). This Sanskrit-language work describes the food as iḍḍarikā. In Karnataka, the Idli in 1235 CE is described as being 'light, like coins of high value', which is not suggestive of a rice base.The food prepared using this recipe is now called uddina idli in Karnataka.

The recipe mentioned in these ancient Indian works leaves out three key aspects of the modern idli recipe: the use of rice (not just black gram), the long fermentation of the mix, and the steaming for fluffiness. The references to the modern recipe appear in the Indian works only after 1250 CE. Food historian K. T. Achaya speculates that the modern idli recipe might have originated in present-day Indonesia, which has a long tradition of fermented food. According to him, the cooks employed by the Hindu kings of the Indianised kingdoms might have invented the steamed idli there, and brought the recipe back to India during 800-1200 CE.[3][4] Achaya mentioned an Indonesian dish called "kedli", which according to him, was like an idli.However, Janaki Lenin was unable to find any recipe for an Indonesian dish by this name.

The Gujarati work Varṇaka Samuccaya (1520 CE) mentions idli as idari, and also mentions its local adaption idada (a non-fermented version of dhokla).[7] The earliest extant Tamil work to mention idli (as itali) is Maccapuranam, dated to the 17th century.

In 2015, Chennai-based Idli caterer Eniyavan started celebrating 30 March as the "World Idli Day