NEW DELHI, Jan 20:
An English version of a book on Raghunath Mandir, detailing historical background and architecture of the shrine located in Jammu, where a large number of devotees from all over the country come to pay obeisance, has been launched.
The book “Shree Raghunath Temple, A Unique Religious Complex” by well known Kathak artiste Shovana Narayan who translated the Hindi version titled “Shri Raghunath Temple, Jammu”, that was brought out in the year 2010.
“For a person like me who has not visited the Raghunath Mandir in Jammu ever, here is a great chance to experience the beauty of the temple by just exploring some pages,” said Shovana during the release of the book here recently.
The function was presided over by Union Culture Minister Chandresh Kumari Katoch and Indian Council for Cultural Relations president Karan Singh at the Bhartiya Vidya Bhawan here.
The original book in Hindi was authored by Kamal Kishore Mishra on the request of Karan Singh.
“On the demand by tourists and pilgrims the book has been printed in English also. It is much more than a guide book as a lot of research work has been done in it,” Singh said.
The temple was built during the period 1835–1860 by Maharaja Gulab Singh and his son Maharaja Ranbir Singh.
The specialty of the temple, said Singh, is that it is the only one in North India which contained every ‘devta’ and ‘devi’ as well as their incarnations.
“The temple has nearly 300 deities and for the past few years I was thinking about a book to be written which brings all this to the people, people only go and come out of the complex (after worshiping the gods and goddesses)”, he said.
Shovana said she felt that she had paid a visit to the entire temple while translating the book.
“It was an amazing experience translating the book because I haven’t been there myself. So, I have visited the complex through reading and translating the manuscript,” she said.
“It was very very Unique complex it exudes the spirit of Indian philosophy. There are perhaps three hundred Ramayanas and this book is sort of adding to that.”
Kamal Kishore Mishra said “This (Raghunath Temple) is the first temple complex here more than 300 deities of gods and goddesses have been given space and the role of each god whether its Ramayana, Ramcharitra Manas, Puranas or Vedas an encyclopedic work has been formed.” (PTI)
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