Scarping the low-lying foothills of the Himalayas, the overall impression of Jammu is one of large stone mansions, handsome buildings, and the remains of an old fort that stands sentinel over the Tawi gorge. While modern plate-fronted shops line the roads today, there is also, in the older houses, a feeling of timelessness, atranquility acquired from the passing of an age.

In recent decades, Jammu has come to be known as a 'city of temples'. From almost anywhere in the city temple spires can be sighted, a burnished gold, andspiraling skywards as they tower over a huddle of flat rooftops. Jammu is also the winter capital of the state, the seat of government whenSrinagar is freezing, snowbound.Equally, Jammu is an important centre for trade and commerce, andthere is about the city an air of brisk finality. This ties, perhaps incongruously, with its temple city nomenclature, but then surely, in this Dogra stronghold, even a French chateau is an oddity.