Raghunath Temple

Raghunath Temple, dedicated to Rama in his form as Raghunath (‘lord of the Raghu dynasty’), is the largest temple complex in Jammu city and the principal legacy of Dogra royal patronage of Vaishnavism. Its construction was begun by Maharaja Gulab Singh, founder of the Dogra dynasty that ruled the princely state of Jammu and Kashmir (sources differ on whether work started in 1822 or 1835), and was completed in 1860 under his son and successor, Maharaja Ranbir Singh. A further complication comes from the temple itself: an inscription in Takri script at the entrance credits the founding to Gulab Singh together with his brother Dhyan Singh in 1827, a third date that the available sources do not reconcile with the 1822/1835 figures given elsewhere. Rather than a single shrine, the complex houses seven interconnected temples honoring deities associated with the Ramayana narrative, its towers finished with gold-plated, dome-topped spires that architectural historians read as a blend of Hindu and Sikh building traditions from the same Punjab-hills milieu. The complex also holds a notable library of roughly 6,000 Sanskrit manuscripts written in the Sharada script, along with a pathshala that historically admitted students across caste lines.

The temple has twice been the target of terrorist violence: on 30 March 2002 an attack on the surrounding market and temple killed ten people, and on 24 November of the same year a bombing during worship, attributed to Lashkar-e-Taiba, killed thirteen more and injured over forty. Despite these attacks, Raghunath Temple remains an active center of daily worship and a defining civic landmark of Jammu city.