01Tilak’s birthplace
Keshav Gangadhar Tilak was born on 23 July 1856 in his family’s house in a lane of Ratnagiri now called Tilak Ali, where his father Gangadhar Shastri was a schoolteacher. The family moved to Pune when he was ten. The house, a Konkani home with a sloping tiled roof and a courtyard, is kept as a memorial with photographs and copies of Kesari. Above the town, on a headland over the sea, is the Ratnadurg fort with its Bhagavati temple, held in turn by the Adil Shahs, Shivaji and the Peshwas’ admirals.
02Savarkar and the Patit Pavan Mandir
Released from the Andamans and then from Yerawada, Savarkar was confined to Ratnagiri district from January 1924 on condition that he stay out of politics. He turned to social work. He ran inter-caste dinners, campaigned against untouchability, and with the merchant Bhagoji Seth Keer built the Patit Pavan Mandir, a temple of Vishnu opened in 1931 where every Hindu, of whatever caste, could enter and worship together. The restrictions on him were lifted in 1937. The town also has the Thibaw Palace, built in 1910 for King Thibaw of Burma, whom the British had deposed in 1885 and kept here until his death in 1916.
The life of this place
- 23 July 1856Bal Gangadhar Tilak is born at Ratnagiri.
- 1924–1937Savarkar is confined to Ratnagiri district.
- 1931The Patit Pavan Mandir opens to Hindus of every caste.
