Belonging from a small town in Jammu city, I always had a dream to kick off to the places where I can explore and live my dreams. From searching on internet the best places to visit in India to really struggling with this passionate travelling, the thing that strike out in my mind was “Why not to start from my own city”? We always want to jump to the other city to traverse. In bold terms, visiting new cities boost up the people...Right? I always have the quench of knowing different Cultures, Traditions and Places, so this is what made me to decide travelling the every street of my city.
My eyes always get fascinated towards the Historical and Cultural places.The culture, old buildings and aesthetics have always something unique to offer “the history that occurred before we were born and the respect for those who lived in prior times”. When I enlisted the historical and cultural places in my own city “Amar Mahal Palace, Mubarak Mandi Palace/Dogra Art Museum and Raghunath Temple were on top in my list. According to me what a monkey uses to do hype is what I do when I crave to visit the ancient places.
The Classical journey began with the Biggest museum of the Jammu known as Dogra Art Museum (Heritage Centre).
I was totally not expecting to find out such vintage Architecture in Jammu. The out with the ark place where one can find the “Dogra Cultural Heritage”. It is housed in the Pink Hall of the Mubarak Mandi Complex and was established in 1954, it has about 7216 collections where one can know about all the things that belong to Dogra and Jammu culture. What I found most charming in the whole museum was the Rasmanjari series of the famed Basohli miniature paintings(Pahari Paintings) and some rare manuscripts like uniquely illustrated Shahnama and Sikandernama in Persian. Further I get to know about Dogra Costumes, Sculptures, Numismatics, and Manuscript. One of the person who is looking after the museum introduced me with the gold plated bow belonging to Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan and a stone plate with inscription in Tahrir Script, the most prized possessions of this museum. This building also housed the public library.It was like a step to step opening of doors of surprises for me.I was like an empty vessel who came out with a lot of new learning after visiting such an incredible place.
What I brought in my journal??? Unknowingly met with a person name Abdul Majid, he briefly told me about the place and said some lines that made me to think and blew my mind “the future are you, you can carry this artistic representations to the other decade or century, but no one is interested today to know about history, we live just for money and we definitely are going to suffer”. No one believes in Sufi or Rumi today, all love the noise but no one is listening to the silence.
After having an amazing experience at Dogra Art Museum I decided to visit: Amar Mahal Palace”
Amar Mahal palace is another place in Jammu that is a figure of Dogra Dynasty.It was built for Raja Amar Singh, and now it is donated to the Hari-Tara Charitable trust by Dr.Karan Singh for use of Museum. What mainly captivates is the grand view of this place, situated on the right bank of the Tawi River and surrounded by Shivalik hills to the north of the Mahal. It has large collection of portraits of the royal family and believe me every character in the photograph depicts a story. There is not any single thing that you would not love to see, it’s indeed a magical place. The infrastructure is the main thing that definitely have a great impact on your eyes. Being a Travel writer, what makes me to love this place the most is about the arrangements of Guided Tours, Book Readings, Lectures, Film shows, Visitor friendly activities, Scholarly exchanges, workshops and exhibitions.I got a chance to see the art works of some of renowned Indian artists like M.F.Hussain, Laxman Pai etc. In one of the gallery paintings of Hindu epic stories are depicted. And guess what? 25000 collection of rare antique books. I was totally enthralled by book name Triveni written by Dr. Karan Singh that covers poems, essays and stories because I have only heard one book till now by my name that is written by Gulzar, so this was beautiful memory to be going to store in my journal.
A totally versatile place as it has so much to offer. One can sense the smell of art in every brick and room of this mahal . In short, this mahal truly defines the freshness and aliveness of the history.
“What’s next??? The Raghunath Temple/The Raghunath Bazar”...
Your visit to Jammu is incomplete if you didn’t went to Raghunath Temple. I live in Jammu but I never got a chance to see the temple. So finally a call from such historical place was a good sign to have a walk on the “Bazar(Market) road” and Temple. It was 10 degree Celsius in Jammu and the place where temple is located is surrounded by good number of trees. I was having chills because the floor was so cold and every side of temple had a lot of things to say. Forgetting the odds, I decided to just focus on the story of the temple. The temple has many gods in its complex of shrines, but presiding deity is Rama-also known as Raghunath. What amazed me the most were niches in the walls of shrines that are decorated with 300 well crafted icons of god and goddesses including Surya and Shiva. But let me tell you one thing the most of things are particularly related to life stories of Rama and Krishna. The paintings in 15 panels of the main shrine are based on the themes from Ramayan, Mahabharata and Bhagavad Gita. I recalled the whole Ramayana that I watched in season of Corona while walking in whole temple. The gift to my eyes were the cculpture of Lord Rama, Shiva-Linga, Decked stones(Pindi) and “Karneshwar Natraj”. This place has completely a different vibe and it offers calmness and peace to one’s soul. I sat under the tree for a while, and leafs falling had scent of ancient tales.If I talk about famous market of Jammu “Raghunath Bazar” is well known for Dry Fruits. It is always a busy shopping area where you can find the numerous small shops that offers many services in clothes and accessories.
It was not possible for me to relish these unique and best places without the help of the food. Travel without food is just incomplete for me and Of Course for anyone of us. Jammu has a lot of street foods to offer. From Roadside Tapri Chai, Kalari Kulcha to Rajma Chawal, from spicy to sour, you will find a variety of foods to enjoy. One can start the food journey from Jugal Kishore Sharma Halwa stall at city chowk and continue to dissolve their hunger for food visiting some famous food points like Girdhari Kachalu wale,Pehalwan and list goes on. While exploring Jammu one must take time of one to two days at least to taste every single food. One advise for the people who are going to visit the place is don’t miss out the “kalari kulcha and chola Batura” otherwise you will definitely regret.
So it was just a trailer for the one who want to explore Jammu and if you want to enjoy the whole film book your tickets and city of temple have tremendous things to offer. Also the people who are from Jammu and never visited these places, I urge them to know about these epic places, our Jammu is none other less than any other city. According to me, Travel is not just limited to the packing of bags, entering into a new place and clicking selfies. It offers much more than that and if someone asks me what drives me to travel? The answer is still a mystery. Because what we love the most is yet undefined. To travel Jammu city seemed to be an easy thing for me and I thought what’s new? But this shell was broken when I came out of my home. I hope this journey will give you something because it gave me exceptional experiences. One must have an eye of an observer to find beauty in the things, “Be that Observer and Enjoy the essence of travel”.
