The construction of Raghunath Temple was initiated by Maharaja Gulab Singh (1792-1857), the founder of the Dogra dynasty and the first Maharaja of Jammu & Kashmir. The temple was built over a period of 25 years, from 1835 to 1860, with the work completed by his son Maharaja Ranbir Singh after Gulab Singh's death. The Dogra rulers were devout Hindus who established Jammu as a center of Hindu learning and pilgrimage.
The temple complex was built adjacent to the old Raghunath Mandir, which had existed since the 16th century. The Dogra rulers personally collected thousands of Saligramas from the Gandaki River in Nepal for installation in the temple. The temple library houses a major manuscript collection in North India, including rare texts in Sanskrit, Persian, and Dogri. The temple survived the 1947 partition violence and the subsequent Kashmir conflict, though it was the target of a terrorist attack in 2002.
