Raghunath Temple, Jammu – The Temple

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 19^th 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.