By road
~43 km from Katra, ~265 km from Srinagar, ~600 km by road from Delhi on NH44
North India · Jammu & Kashmir
Jammu, Jammu & Kashmir
The City of Temples, and the road into the Trikuta hills · ~43 km from Katra, ~265 km from Srinagar, ~600 km by road from Delhi on NH44
Getting there
By rail
Jammu Tawi (JAT), the region's main railhead; Shri Mata Vaishno Devi Katra is the terminus for the yatra itself
By air
Jammu Airport (IXJ), the civil enclave ~8 km from the city centre on the R S Pura road
Best time to visit
October to March — the plains here climb past 40°C through summer
Don't miss
Raghunath Temple
Bahu Fort and Bagh-e-Bahu
The Mubarak Mandi palace complex
Amar Mahal Museum
Dogra Art Museum
Things to do
The Vaishno Devi yatra from Katra
The Bahu Fort ramparts at dusk
A day out to Mansar and Surinsar lakes
Where to eat
Sources: open-meteo, wikimedia, Photo: Nvvchar · CC BY-SA 3.0
What to pack
Modest cover and a scarf for the temples, comfortable walking shoes, a warm layer if you carry on to Katra or Patnitop
A quieter corner
Peer Kho, a cave temple on the bank of the Tawi that most itineraries drive straight past
About Jammu
- Riverside
- Hills
Where it is
Jammu is the winter capital of the union territory of Jammu and Kashmir, on the banks of the Tawi river where the Punjab plains meet the Shivalik foothills, south of the Pir Panjal range.
History
Jammu is traditionally said to have been founded by Raja Jambu Lochan, and it became the seat of Dogra Rajput rulers. Under Gulab Singh the Dogras built a kingdom that, after the Treaty of Amritsar in 1846, also included Kashmir, and the Dogra maharajas ruled it until the middle of the 20th century.
People
Jammu's people speak Dogri, as well as Hindi, Punjabi and Urdu, and Dogra culture lives on in the city's temples, folk music and the Pahari miniature painting of nearby Basohli. Kalari cheese and rajma with rice are local favourites.
Known for
- The Raghunath Temple
- Bahu Fort and Bagh-e-Bahu
- The Mubarak Mandi palace complex
- The Vaishno Devi pilgrimage via Katra
- Kalari cheese and rajma with rice
Did you know?
Dogri, the main language of Jammu, was added to the Eighth Schedule of India's Constitution in 2003, making it one of the country's 22 scheduled languages.
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