[3] Historians identify Ratnagiri with a village of the same name, mentioned in an inscription of the Chalukya king Vikramaditya I (r. c. 655-680 CE).

[1] According to folklore, after the fall of the Vijayanagara Empire, poet Allasani Peddana migrated to Ratnagiri with 500 Brahmin families.

Later, Hyder Ali, the de facto ruler of Mysore, seized the fort, retaining the local chief as its commander.

In 1792, when Hyder Ali's son Tipu Sultan was busy fighting the British East India Company during the Siege of Seringapatam, the local chief rebelled and overthrew the Mysore suzerainty.

Another stepwell named Pala Bavi is used by the devotees visiting a temple dedicated to the goddess Kolhapuramma.