The niches in the walls of the shrines are decorated with 300 well-crafted icons of gods and goddesses including those of Surya and Shiva, but most are particularly related to the life stories of Rama and Krishna.

One such temple complex was started in 1822 (1835 is also mentioned[5]) by Gulab Singh, the ruler of Jammu and was dedicated to his guru Baba Prem Das.

[6] During the reign of Ranbir Singh, the temple complex started a pathshala (school) which welcomed students from all castes and classes.

[7] The library added to its collection, in the 19th century, a dozen rare Sanskrit birch bark codices in the Sarada script as an object of curiosity.

[7] The collection as indexed by Stein, included Sanskrit manuscripts (predominantly Devanagari) of Vedic literature, grammar, lexicography, prosody, music, rhetoric, Kavya, drama, fables, dharmasutras, Mimamsa, Vedanta, Samkhya, Yoga, Nyaya, Jyotisha, Architecture, Medicine, Epics, Puranas, Bhakti and Tantra.

[10] The Raghunath temple remains a significant scholarly source of Sarada script manuscripts and one of the largest collection of Hindu and Buddhist texts of the Kashmir tradition.

[17][16] In the main shrine, the idol of Rama, which is the family deity of the then king and the Dogra people, is deified in the garbhagriha (sanctum sanctorum).

The shrines are also enshrined with a very large number of Saligramas (fossil ammonite stones specially obtained from the Gandaki river, in Nepal – a Vaishnava (Hindu) aniconic representation of Vishnu).

[citation needed] A distinct feature noted in the entire temple complex is the stucco style embellishments built with brick masonry and finished with plaster.

The profusion of paintings and images on the internal and external faces of the temple was considered an auspicious feature, instead of leaving the wall surfaces blank.

[15] On 30 March 2002, a terrorist outfit first attacked in the market area by lobbing grenades and then entered the temple where they started firing.