According to colonial manuscripts written in Dutch, these cultural traditions were better known by its nicknames, such as Kanorace op de Inderagiri (lit.

Little is known about the exact starting date of these cultural tradition, but the earliest written reference for Pacu Jalur specifically mentioned during the 17th century within the local manuscripts.

However, in earlier era, in the 7th century, it is worth to mention that the large number of envoy of Minangkabau rowers reached the downstream of the Batang Hari river (part of modern-day Jambi provincial region) from its upstream in Minangkabau Highlands (part of modern-day West Sumatra provincial region) using watercrafts, these specific event described in the Kedukan Bukit Inscription found in Palembang.

Inscriptional text:"... maŕlapas dari Mināṅa tāmvan mamāva yaṁ vala dua lakşa daṅan ko śa duaratus cāra di sāmvau ..."Translation:"... went from the Minangkabau carrying twenty thousand reinforcements with two hundreds tributes in the watercrafts (boats or canoes) ..."According to the oral tradition of the local community, the Pacu Jalur were initially used as a means of transport along the river of Batang Kuantan from the Kuantan Hulu (upstream region) all the way down to the Cerenti sub-district at the mouth of Batang Kuantan river.

Later, these elongated dug-out boats are purposely decorated by the local cultural elements that might include the heads of snakes, crocodiles, tigers and sometimes added with Minangkabau umbrellas (payuang).

During the Dutch colonialism era, the Pacu Jalur was allowed and held to enliven the traditional celebrations; since 1890 it was used as the mean to commemorate the birthday of Wilhelmina (the Queen of the Netherlands) that fell on 31 August annually and the festival will last up to 1 or 2 September.