Beatles’ Indian hideaway comes together, 50 years after they visited the Maharishi in Rishikesh
The Beatles’ visit to India in 1968 brought much publicity to the ‘giggling guru’ Maharishi Mahesh Yogi and his ashram, which was abandoned and fell into disrepair in the early 2000s. Now, Rishikesh locals are repairing parts of the site where most of the White Album was written
Fifty years after the Beatles came to India, the bungalows where the Fab Four lived, the post office where John Lennon sent Yoko Ono postcards and the giggling guru’s house are all ruins.
Maharishi Mahesh Yogi’s ashram in Rishikesh, where the world’s most famous group sought refuge and spirituality in 1968 and wrote much of their seminal White Album, fell into disuse in the early 2000s.
“Before, people used to sneak in, which could be dangerous,” says local journalist Raju Gusain, instrumental in rescuing the area overlooking Rishikesh in Uttarakhand, northern India. “There used to be leopard paw marks and elephant dung. Now we have erected a fence to stop animals getting in from the tiger reserve next door.”
By 1968, following the death of Beatles manager Brian Epstein the year before, fissures were beginning to show between John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr.