Raghunath Temple, Jammu – The
Temple
The
temple complex consists of 17 shrines dedicated to various deities of Hindu
pantheon and few Samadhis of Dogra rulers of Gulab Singh‘s linage. It is
considered as one of the largest
temple complex in north India. The
temple complex is entered by a double storeyed entrance on the east. Its
arches and niches are undoubtedly influenced by Mughal architecture. The
entrance of the
temple has three entry doors.
The entrance of the
temple has a life size image of Maharaja Ranbir Singh, builder of this
temple and an idol of Lord Hanuman. The front fascia is 40 feet in width
while the main shrine is set 50 feet away from the entrance. There are
residential buildings and open cattle yards on its eastern and northern
directions within the outer prakara. Seven shrines are considered as major
shrines in the
temple complex.
It is built on a raised platform
of 5 feet height in an octagonal shape. All the seven shrines have gold plated
spires. Gods and Goddesses enshrined in the seven shrines are all related to
the epic Ramayana. The architectural features of the shrines are typical Dogra
style but heavily influenced by Mughal architecture. A distinct feature noted
in the
entire temple complex is the stucco style
embellishments built with brick masonry and finished with plaster.
The motifs crafted are of floral
(lotuses) and geometric designs, on the walls, in the niches and on arches. All
the spiral-shaped towers have gold plated spires. The niches in the walls of
the shrines are decorated with 300 well-crafted icons of gods and goddesses. The
Sanctum Sanctorum consists of Sanctum with a circumbulatory path and Maha
Mandapa. The Maha Mandapa is supported by four huge rectangular pillars.
The Maha Mandapa has galleries
housing 12, 00, 000 Saligramas (fossil ammonite stones
specially obtained from the Gandaki
river, in Nepal – a Vaishnava
(Hindu) aniconic representation
of Vishnu) and several Lingas. The Sanctum is facing towards east. The Sanctum
houses Lord Rama / Ragunathji, an incarnation of Lord Vishnu. He is accompanied
by Lakshmana and Sita in the sanctum.
The Sanctum is square in plan. It
measures 20 feet in length and 20 feet in breadth. It is surrounded by a
circumambulatory passage (pradakshina path) of 10 feet width. The
interior of the sanctum is gold plated. The shrine has a dome over the sanctum
instead of the normal shikara in a pyramidal shape. The wall of the pradakshina
path has the sculptures of Rahu, Ketu, Saneeswara, Agni, Kubera, Yama, Indra
and Varuna.
The exterior walls of the sanctum
have 15 panels, each of 9 feet height. These panels houses the Jammu
School of painting depicting the legends from Ramayana, Mahabharata, and
Bhagavad Gita. It also houses few paintings relate to secular aspects,
like Kabir, a saint, engaged in weaving and army personnel of Dogra and Sikh
communities. The paintings also reveal the type of attire and the weaponry
prevalent during the period of temple building.
There is a shrine for Karaneswara
in the
temple premises. It houses a Spadika Linga. Nandi can be found facing towards
the shrine. It also houses idols of Parvati, Ganesha and Nataraja with his
consort Shivagami. It is said that the main Linga was gifted by a German national.
There is replica of all four Char Dham (Rameshwaram, Dwarkadhish, Badrinath and
Kedarnath) in a room in the
temple premises. It is placed in such a way that it can be seen from one
direction.
Shrines and idols of Ganesha,
Hanuman, Valmiki, Tulsidas, Vaishno Devi, Krishna, Brahma, Vishnu, Satya Narayan,
Sesha Narayan, Lakshmi Narayan, Shiva, Dharmaraja, Surya, Badrinarayan, Drona,
Krupa, Ashwatthama, Manu, Kartikeya, Virat, Dattatreya, Lakshmi, Parvati,
Chamundi, Sarasvati, Kali, Gayatri, Indra, Yama, Vali, Sugriva, Yama,
incarnations of Lord Vishnu, Dasharatha, Lakshman, Bharata, Vibhishana, Nakshatra
and several Shiva Lingas can be seen in the
temple premises.
The
temple houses a Sanskrit library containing 6000 rare Sanskrit manuscripts
and sacred scriptures in many Indian languages, with a notable collection of
Sarada script Sanskrit manuscripts. This library was established during the
reign of Dogra ruler Ranbir Singh. These are mostly copies made from
manuscripts not available for sale, in Devanagari from Sarada originals, by
scribes employed by the library in the nineteenth century.
The library added to its
collection, in the 19th century, a dozen rare Sanskrit birch bark
codices in the Sarada script as an object of
curiosity. The collection as indexed by Stein, included Sanskrit manuscripts
(predominantly Devanagari) of Vedic literature, grammar, lexicography, prosody,
music, rhetoric, Kavya, drama, fables, Dharmasutras, Mimamsa, Vedanta, Samkhya,
Yoga, Nyaya, Jyotisha, Architecture, Medicine, Epics, Puranas, Bhakti and
Tantra.
The Dogra rulers funded a
translation centre and included an effort to translate texts in Arabic and Persian
languages into Sanskrit. The
temple remains a significant scholarly source of Sarada script manuscripts
and one of the largest collection of Hindu and Buddhist texts of the Kashmir
tradition. The
temple has been an early promoter of digitization initiative of the
manuscripts it houses, and has started the e-Gangotri initiative
to digitize ancient manuscripts from other parts of India.
