Ratnapura

Ratnapura, or Ratanpur, was the capital of the Kalachuri dynasty that ruled much of Dakshina Kosala. Its rulers moved their seat here from Tummana and filled the town with forts, temples and tanks. The Mahamaya temple, dedicated to a form of the goddess, became a prominent religious centre; tradition associates its foundation with the Kalachuri king Ratnadeva. The town also served as a market for produce brought from the wooded hills to the north.

By the fifteenth century the Kalachuri house had divided into branches ruling from Ratanpur and Raipur. The Ratanpur line endured into the eighteenth century, when the expanding power of the Bhonsles of Nagpur reached Chhattisgarh. The kingdom acknowledged Maratha supremacy around 1740; after the death of its last ruler, Mohan Singh, it was annexed. The temples and remains of the old capital recall the long reign of the Kalachuris and the religious life they supported.