Ajoy Bose - Across the Universe: The Beatles in India

C ountless books have been written about the Beatles but surprisingly few have focused on the path that brought them to India half a century ago. Many have of course mentioned in passing their Rishikesh trip to meditate at an ashram in the foothills of the Himalayas and the famous spat with Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. Yet there has been no serious attempt to piece together and put in perspective the fascinating saga that began with George Harrison curiously picking up a sitar while filming Help! and ended three years later with him and John Lennon walking out on their Indian guru.

This three-year period was particularly momentous in the life of the band. This is when the Beatles transformed themselves from the worlds most famous pop stars into pioneering musical artistes, fathering the important and still popular musical genre of rock. Yet their musical genius is not the main reason the Fab Four still remain so alive in public memory. It is the interplay of their personal relationships and ideas with their music that has made them such endearing totems for generation after generation of fans. The growing affair with India alongside their experiments with psychedelic drugs is a crucial ingredient of the Beatles fable. Their stay at the ashram with its astonishing creative burst of songwriting, followed by the dramatic denouement, became all the more significant because it is from here that the band started unravelling.

The journey of the lads from Liverpool to Rishikesh also brings into play two extraordinary Indian luminaries in the tale. Pandit Ravi Shankar, the sitar legend, described by George as the godfather of international music left his special imprint by opening the door to Indian culture and faith for his protg and, thereby, his bandmates. The unique, if somewhat dubious, personality of the Maharishi, perhaps the most influential of the several Indian gurus who reached out to the West, presents an interesting contrast. The pageant of other colourful characters that flit across this shadow play on the Beatles in Rishikesh I am about to present includes Hollywood actress Mia Farrow, Japanese avant-garde artiste Yoko Ono and of course the controversial Greek Magic Alex, who, according to some, played the role of the serpent in the Himalayan paradise. It is truly an international cast drawn from across the universe.

Many of the key personalities in the story of the Beatles in India are no longer with us. The two surviving members of the band, Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr, were not available for an interview. But I did manage to track down in London Pattie Boyd, formerly married to George. It was she who had first led the Beatles to the Maharishi. Pattie was kind enough to spend more than an hour with me, recounting her memories of not just the excursion to Rishikesh but also the cultural voyage across India on which she and her husband were taken by Ravi Shankar two years before that. Indeed, it was this experience that deepened Georges bond with India, drawing him into its embrace, and would make him urge his bandmates to follow him in search of ancient wisdom.

In Rishikesh there is nobody to talk about what happened so many years ago; the ashram lies in ruins with the Maharishi and his people having abandoned the place several decades ago. But I was fortunate to find in the nearby town of Dehra Dun, the wizened octogenarian Ajit Singh, veena player and owner of Pratap Music Shop, who had become friends with John and George when they were at the ashram. He shared vivid and very pleasant memories of performing at birthday parties for both George and Pattie at the ashram, playing music and chatting with the two Beatles in their cottage and making musical instruments for them.

I am also grateful to Sukanya Shankar, widow of Ravi Shankar, and the Bharat Ram brothers, Vinay, Arun and Vivek, for their insights into the relationship between the sitar maestro and George. My long chats with Saeed Naqvi, the only journalist to have managed to embed himself inside the ashram while the Beatles were there, were invaluable.