Whatever happened to the “Beatles ashram” in Rishikesh?
These evocative photographs of the abandoned Rishikesh ashram of the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi – celebrity yogi to the Beatles and an inextricable part of late 60s counterculture – are by Paul Prudence, the author of the beautiful blog dataisnature. The Beatles stayed at this ashram in 1968 to study with the yogi. He apparently disapproved of their potsmoking, though you can’t believe everything you read. John and George eventually left the ashram amidst rumours the yogi had made sexual advances on Mia Farrow, though apparently these rumours were discounted much later on. But by the time the accusations were retracted the much-publicized 60s melodrama was already mostly forgotten. The disintegrating ashram is now minimally monitored by a security guard, but an image search online shows that many travelers and photographers trespass on the place regularly, either out of homage or just curiosity. It’s a beautiful place. The Maharishi died last year at age 90 in the Netherlands, John and George are long gone, and it’s unclear exactly when the ashram was abandoned and the bees started to move in. I’m not a Transcendental Meditationist, unlike David Lynch and Clint Eastwood, but I find the architectural remains of the yogi’s ashram very beautiful and a reminder of the pervasive influence of Indian design and thought on 60s aesthetics in the west. Thanks to Paul Prudence for permission to reproduce these superb photos here.
Tags: 60s, abandoned, architecture, ashram, building, bygones, counterculture, dataisnature, decrepit, design, disillusionment, eastern spirituality, favourite, hippie, hippies, India, Indian, Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, meditation, overgrown, Paul Prudence, Rishikesh, temple, The Beatles, Transcendental Meditation, yogi
July 3rd, 2009 at 1:55 am
I do believe that the Maharishi banned drugs, even smoking marihuana. Also in Tibetan Buddhism, we have learnt that this combination can lead to very unpleasant states of mind, in worst cases to heavy obsessions and other psychic suffering. — The architecture is amazing! As I learnt about TM (without practising it myself), the Maharishi planned every detail and gave it a meaning in his plan to make the world a better place. And who knows, maybe he succeeded to a certain degree. I can believe it when I look back into the times of the Berlin Wall and how it fell.
Under this aspect, it is a little sad to see the state this place is in.
July 3rd, 2009 at 3:05 am
Nice to see this abandoned wonder getting some deserved attention! What isn’t immediately noticable in the pictures is that forest is has encroached much of the Ashram complex and at the right time it is absolutely teeming with flowers and insects, a ghosly bioheaven!
You might also be interested in this wonderous relic form the MIU ‘cult’ which i found in one of the many, many rooms i looked in.
‘Documenting The Reality of the Global Taste of Utopia’ can be found here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/transphormetic/3394552955/
I particularly enjoy ‘the lagrangian of the unified field’
http://www.flickr.com/photos/transphormetic/3394554623/
best,
paul
July 4th, 2009 at 3:30 am
Hi Paul! Thanks again for permission to post these amazing photos. The utopian documents are amazing – beautiful and disturbing at the same time, but utopianism always seem to carry a hint of apocalypse with it somehow, for me. I love the way the forest is moving back in and I was mesmerized by the shot of the hanging bee hive. Do you know when the ashram was abandoned?
July 4th, 2009 at 4:22 am
Heh Lindsay,
I was told that the ashram was finally abandoned sometime during the 80’s, even though it had been losing popularity for quite some time. As you can see in some of the rooms there are piles of old files, documentation and various TM artifacts. The dates on the documents cut-off at around the mid 1980’s if I recall correctly. Btw the did you noticed that the date on the Daily Mail clipping (in one of the photographs) is from Jan 1960!?
Another thing worth mentioning is the stunning acoustics of the pod shaped dwellings, whose shape i suppose was created to enhance of sound of chanting and mantras.
I have a lot of video of walking around this abandoned complex which i should really dig out soon.
July 8th, 2009 at 4:15 am
may I use one of these pictures for a story I am doing on the beatles?
July 8th, 2009 at 7:10 am
Jaskiran, you need to ask Paul (comment above) for permission – these photos are all his. Click on the photos to be taken to his Flickr, and you can contact him that way.
- Lindsay
July 9th, 2009 at 7:33 am
I love the irony of real bees replacing the “beehive” shaped pods!
Also, the building with stepped stories is fascinating. This was quite a popular design in 70s and 80s modernist architecture (there are various examples all over India), and here it is adorned with Mughal multi-pointed arches (albeit in concrete)!
Does anyone know if the “Z” design in the perforated screens has any specific meaning?
July 12th, 2009 at 12:54 pm
Hi Varun,
That’s interesting about the stepped stories being popular in the 70s and 80s – is that when this first appeared? And did you ever find out about the “Z” design in the screens? I’m curious!
Lindsay
August 3rd, 2009 at 4:07 am
Hello,
The ashram was abandoned in 1984 because the supreme court of India turned the whole place into a national park called the Shahaji National park. The Maharishi did not own this place and had it on lease. Once the ruling was passed, there was little the Maharishi could do but abandon the land. Just weeks before the place had to be abandoned, the local forest authorities told the ashram workers that they could take with them all that they could before the deadline and because of this there are no switchboards, taps, furniture and metal parts left in the ashram. Everything was ransacked and sold off in the local market.
The meditation halls were aircondtioned… In the 1960’s n that too in an Indian forest! There was a helipad, a post office and a bank inside the ashram. All this made the place pretty remarkable.
A lot of private companies are interested in acquiring this property and turning it into a meditation resort but the Indian forest act does not allow this. Only government bodies are allowed to touch the place and Indian government being corrupt and lethargic, you can expect this place to rot and crumple one day for sure.
There is only one guard looking after the place. By law, no on is allowed to enter this ruins but the guards are lenient and let people inside if you just hand them some money.
If anyone wants to get there, get to rishikesh and ask for ‘chaurasi kuti’ which means 84 huts in Hindi. The ashram had roughly 84 huts, hence the name.
Also, there is a ‘Vithal ashram’ in rishikesh. The locals might guide you to that ashram because vithal and beatles sound the same to them. Just ask them to take you to chaurasi kuti across the ‘barage’ which means a dam. So if you want to get to the ashram, cross the dam over the Ganga and get to the other side. There is a ferry service too.
Ok.. Take care all.
August 8th, 2009 at 8:57 pm
Hi Lindsay,
Apologies for taking this long to respond. I’m not sure when these stepped buildings first appeared – I’ll have to go back to the history books to check on that, but there are various examples that come to me offhand.
Here’s a government office building in Delhi:
http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/showpost.php?p=2539273&postcount=13
And a beach resort in Kovalam (Kerela in south India):
http://www.flickr.com/photos/7968891@N05/473284684/
As you can see, these are variations on a theme.
I can think of two other structures, one of which is another Delhi government office building, and the other is an apartment building in Cochin (Kerela), but I couldn’t find images for those. I’m sure there are other examples around India as well, and I don’t know the history of such stepped buildings within an international modernist framework. It’ll be an interesting topic to look into!
About the screen design, I was interested because it’s typical of the style of cement “jali” (screen) design from that period. We don’t really find such designs anymore. Below is another example of such a screen, used in a balcony railing in Shahjahanabad (Old Delhi), probably from sometime in the mid-20th c. and linked, in my opinion, with the Indian flavor of Art Deco. This is from a collection of images of Old Delhi that I hope to put up soon. The balcony is on the top right of the image.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/varunshiv/3803051428/