Temples of India: Raghunath temple( Jammu)

 Hey readers. Long time!I am beginning a new series today with temples of India. In this series we will cover the temples statewise. So let's start from top. Today let's get rubaru with Raghunath temple of Jammu. 

Source: Pinterest

Raghunath temple:

Located right in the middle of Jammu and also old Jammu which is at a close distance from Jammu airport. This temple complex is believed to be the largest shrine of North India. The presiding deity of the temple is Lord Rama who is the 8th avatar of Lord Vishnu. The temple is in North of river 'Tawi".Average elevation of temple is 1150 ft. 

Legend and history:

The temple was first constructed by first dogra ruler who was Maharaja Gulab SIngh in 1853 and later it was completed by Maharaja Ranbir Singh in 1860.Its 130 years old temple. 

Maharaja Gulab Singh got the idea from a man named Shri Ram Dass Bairagi who was believed to travel from Ayodhya to Jammu . And this temple was built as Maharaja did something very wrong which is not clear.So for his mistake he built this temple and it was completed by the other kings. 

The temple consists of 7 temples. Each temple has a tower( shikhar) of it's own. All the shikhars are spiral shaped and have gold-plated spires. The wall of the shrines has 300 well- crafted icons of Lord Surya and Lord Shiva. And the paintings depicts the life stories of Rama and Krishna. The paintings are based on Ramayana, Maharbharata and Bhagvad Gita. 

Source: pinterest

Paintings depicted on walls

The temple was also used as a centre of learning. Here sanskrit was taught to the brahmin students. 

The inner walls of the main temple has gold sheet on three sides. The temple has a vast gallery and various lingams and saligrams are placed even for the general public to worship. 

The historical significance is that multiple temples that surround the main temple are connected to multiple God and goddesses. Rama leela and krishna leela are depicted in paintings. 

In 2002 terrorist attack took place in March and November. In the attack 20 people died and 40 other were injured. They threw grenades and did indiscriminate firing on the public. After the incident, the temple was shut down till 2013 for 11 years. Devotees had to wait for Lord Rama for 11 long years. 

How to reach:

It's 3 kms away from jammu tawi railway station. All the vehicles like auto and cabs can be hired easily.. 

A library also is present in temple which has the old sanskrit manuscripts.

Lord Rama sayings:

Lord Rama to Bharat:

"Beauty may leave the moon, 

Himalayas may become bereft of  snow, 

The ocean may trangress its shores, 

But I will never violate the promise 

Given by my father. "

In this context,Lord Rama talks about the promise given to his father for his 14 years of vanvas leaving all the possesions behind with his wife and brother. So he says that beauty can leave the moon, and ocean can leave it's shores but he will never say no to his father dashrath. 

Lord Rama says:

Time will always follow it's rules, 

And will never trangress those boundaries 

It imposes on itself, 

Nobody can harm time, and that's why 

Nobody can change whats in store for them. 

Thats it for today readers, will meet you tomorrow with another temple of jammu series. Till then keep reading, keep gaining knowledge.