The original name of Jammu might be Jambu which with the passage of time might have changed its nomenclature to Jammu. It is hard fact that in Puranas a word Jambudvipa in many a pages has its mention but some are of opinion that once the soil of present Jammu was rich for growth of Jamun Trees & this is one of the reasons that the township of the region was named as Jammu after the Jamun Trees, whereas, some are of the view that Jambavant, the king of bears who helped Lord Rama in fighting against Ravana, inhabited in a cave in Jammu region so township of the region was named after him as Jammu.
After vast study & research of Puranic books the Historians & Scholars have established that Lord of creation Brahma was born from Lotus in the naval of Vishnu. He did penance for thousands of years, pleased Prasakti & started creation. He had seven sons including Marichi who became expert in creation. His son was Prajapatti Kasyap & he was bestowed with a son namely Sun or Suraj or Dev Sawarn Tolad who was blessed with nine sons namely (1)-Iksvaku, (2)-Nabhaga, (3)-Dhrsta, (4)-Saryati, (5)-Narisyant, (6)- Pramsu, (7)-Nrga-Dista, (8)-Karusa, (9)-Prasadhra, out of them Iksvaku became the king & his off springs were called Suryavamsa or Suryavanshi. After a good gap of generations, Maharaja Raghu an offspring of Surya-vansh & descendent of Raja Iksvaku was “The Great” in all respects, so his descendents were called Raghu-vanshi & Rama who had two sons named Lav and Kusa was also from this dynasty & was fourth in generation of Raghu clan. Much latter the king Sudarshan (1600-1560 B.C.) an offspring of Raghu-vansh was ascended to the throne & ruled over the Ajodhya kingdom for a longer period. He was blessed by two sons namely Agni-Baran & Agni-Gir. The king Bridhbal who was the tenth generation descendent of King Agni Baran was killed at the hands of Vir Abhimanyu during the Mahabharata war.
After the death of king Sudarshan, his eldest son named Agni-Baran was ascended to throne & his younger brother namely Agni-Gir as a sign of protest, regarding the hot temperament, the unexpected attitude & indifferent nature of his brother, migrated from Ajodhya & became a saint. He travelled to Ajmer and then to Hardwar & settled down on the banks of Ganga. From Hardwar along with the caravan of saints, he travelled to the then Nagarkote, now known as Kangra via Punjab & in the last entered Siwalik Hills. The king of Nagarkot Principality after knowing about his genealogical tree handed over the hands of his daughter & some villages of his territory to him. Though he remained there for some period but was not satisfied with all this, so he crossed the river Ravi, entered the boundaries of Republic of Kathi-Oi now known as Kathua & captured some of the villages of the area. He founded the towns of Pushpavati & Airwan on the banks of Iravati. He further subjugated the surrounding villages and ruled at Bhupanagri till he said farewell to this world. The then Bhupanagri probably was the village Nagri-Parole of Kathua District & this region had been headquarter of the ruling family of Jammu region before Jammu was founded & made capital.
After the death of Agni-Gir, he was succeeded by his eldest son namely Bayu-Shrab. One night his mother had a dream with regard to her son, next morning to have the right interpretation of the dream she went to the nearby dwelling Saint namely Uttamacharya who had closed the doors for worldly greed’s. The saint after knowing the facts of dream told that her son would have a good empire and his off-springs would rule over the whole land to their desire. All the predictions made by the Saint came true. Bayu-Shrab married with Airan Devi, the daughter of a Rajput Sardar of Parole region, who bade farewell to this world in the prime of her life. The Raja established in her memory the town Airapatti Nagar, now called Airwan.Bayu-Sharab (1530-1500 B.C.) who was succeeded by his son named Parmetra (1500-1477 B.C.), succeeded by Puran Dev (1477-1400 B.C.) and Puran Dev was succeeded by his son Lakhu whose son was Khyat Josan. Agni-Garab (1380-1350 B.C.) the son of Khyat Josan was blessed with eighteen sons namely (1)-Bahu Lochan (1350-1320 B.C.) (2)-Jambu Lochan (1320-1290 B.C.) (3)-Arun Lochan, (4)-Kos Lochan, (5)-Ram Lochan, (6)-Hem Lochan. (7)-Rupa Lochan, (8)-Surg Lochan and others. The king Agni-Garab with the help of his brave sons extended the boundaries of the kingdom beyond river Tawi. Bahu Lochan ascended the throne after the death of his father. He founded the Bahu Fort after his name & a town Bahu Nagar. Earlier the very town was known as Dhara Nagari. The king shifted the existing capital to Bahu Nagar & said farewell to the world in a battle with Raja Chander-Hans of Punjab.
Bahu Lochan was issueless, so, after his death his younger brother namely Jambu Lochan ascended the throne and extended the territory of his Principality up to Chenab. He continued battle with Raja Chander-Hans & ultimately he not only became victorious but also killed Raja-Chander-Hans and annexed the territories of neighboring countries such as Sialkot, Abhisar, Hazara, Punjab & upto the borders of Sindh with his Principality.Though he had a large Principality but always desired to have the capital town of the Principality at some other place. Luckily, one day during hunting on a ridge on the opposite side of the Fort & across the river Tawi, he saw the thirsty Lion and Goat drinking water peacefully in the same Pond. On return to have good advice he narrated the whole story to his courtiers. They all responded that the soil of place is excelled in all virtues i.e. the living creatures are not to have any sort of enmity against each other. So on the very spot he got raised the Mandi of justice & a palace for dwelling. He also established a town in the surrounding of the Palace and named this town as Jambupura. The nomenclature of which changed with the passage of time to JAMMU. Puran Karan s/o Jambulochan was the first king of Jammu.
