Jammu, the ancient city of temples is the summer capital of Jammu and Kashmir, the crown of India. Nestling in the foothills of the Himalayas, with the river Tawi flowing alongside, Jammu is the place that Raja Jambhu Lochan discovered one day while he was on a hunting trip. He decided to build a city on this land where no living creature seemed to bear enmity towards each other. Little is known of Jammu's subsequent history until, in 1730 AD, it came under the rule of the Dogra king, Raja Dhruv Deva. The Dogra rulers moved their capital to the present site and Jammu became an important centre of art and culture, especially the Pahari school of paintings.

Today, as if in testimony to Raja Jambhu Lochan's vision, the city of Jammu has come to be known as the 'City Of Ancient Temples'. Innumerable temples and shrines, with glittering 'Shikhars' soaring into the sky dot the city's skyline, creating the ambience of a holy and peaceful city.

Jammu's close proximity to Mata Vaishno Devi's shrine makes it a place of great religious importance. Apart from temples and shrines, Jammu boasts of a number of other places of great tourist interest.

History of Jammu & Kashmir

Jammu & Kashmir came into being as a single political and geographical entity following the Treaty of Amristar between the British Government and Gulab singh signed on March 16, 1846. The Treaty handed over the control of the Kashmir State to the Dogra ruler of Jammu who had earlier annexed Ladakh. Thus a new State comprising three distinct religions of Jammu, Kashmir, and Ladakh was formed with Maharaja Gulab Singh as its founder ruler. Towards the end of a hundred years of this rule when the Indians were fighting for independence from the British under the inspiring leadership of Mahatma Gandhi and Pandit Jawahar Lal Nehru, the Kashmiris led by a towering personality, Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah, rose against the autocracy.

At India's northernmost tip, Jammu & Kashmir is the country's only Muslim-majority province. Kashmir is split between India and Pakistan, both of which claim the region in its entirety; 55,000 square miles controlled by India, 31,580 square miles by Pakistan. It is divided between them by a 1972 cease-fire line called the Line of Control. A little-inhabited portion is also controlled by China which, for various political and diplomatic reasons, is not a factor in the dispute.

Jammu & Kashmir, the territory is bounded on the north by Afghanistan and China, on the east by China, on the south by the state of Himachal Pradesh and the state of Punjab in India, and on the west by the North-West Frontier Province and the Punjab Province of Pakistan.