Rishikesh

Rishikesh, India

The Lakshman Jhula suspension bridge at sunset in Rishikesh, viewed from a riverbank boat.

Rishikesh sits where the Ganges leaves the Himalayan foothills, a gateway to the Garhwal valleys and a long-standing centre of yoga and ashram life.

The place

Rishikesh is a town of about 102,000 people in the Dehradun district of Uttarakhand, set at about 372 metres above sea level on the right bank of the Ganges. The river is the centre of everything here. Temples, ashrams and bathing steps line its banks, and the hills rise steeply behind them, so the town feels squeezed between water and forest rather than spread across a plain. Pilgrims arrive throughout the year, many of them heading further up the valleys towards the Char Dham shrines, while others come to study yoga and meditation in the ashrams that have made the town well known. Local custom shapes daily life: meat, fish and eggs are not sold, and alcohol is banned, which gives the streets and menus a distinctive character. Expect a slower, more spiritual pace in the old quarters and a busier, more commercial atmosphere around the bridges and the main road. The town is also the jumping-off point for trekking routes into the Himalaya, so adventure sits alongside devotion. It is small enough to walk most of in a day, but traffic on the bridges and in the bazaars can be slow at busy times.

Its story

Rishikesh appears in old Hindu texts as part of the wider region called Kedarkhand, described in the Skanda Purana. A well-known story says that Rama performed penance here after killing Ravana, the demon king of Lanka. His brother Lakshmana is said to have crossed the Ganges at the spot where the Lakshman Jhula bridge now stands, using two jute ropes. Another text names a nearby bathing place as Indrakund, where the god Indra is said to have washed away a curse. Legend gathers around crossings and bathing places here, and the river has long been treated as a place where the sacred and the practical meet.

The modern history of the crossing is more prosaic. An iron-rope suspension bridge opened in 1889 was carried away by floods in 1924. A stronger replacement followed in 1927, built by the United Provinces public works department, and it linked the two banks for decades. It collapsed again in 2020, and a new glass bridge is being built across the river to replace it.

Further upstream, a suspension bridge called Ram Jhula was built in 1986 near Sivananda Nagar, and it has since become another landmark for visitors. The temples along the river, including Bharat Mandir, Shatrughna Mandir and Lakshman Mandir, are linked by local tradition to the teacher Adi Shankaracharya. Together these sites show how faith, geography and engineering have shaped the town over time.

What to see

Culture

Rishikesh is a devout town where the rhythm of daily life follows the river. Pilgrims come to bathe, pray and hear teaching in the ashrams along the Ganges, and many residents keep to vegetarian food as a matter of course. Meat, fish and eggs are not sold in the town, a rule that has stood for decades and has been upheld in court, so restaurants build their menus around grains, pulses and vegetables. Alcohol is also banned, though a few upmarket hotels serve beer with meals, which gives the town a quiet evening character that visitors often notice first.

Religious life is public here. Evening aarti at the ghats draws crowds, and families gather at small shrines along the lanes. Many ashrams run daily chanting, lectures and yoga classes, and some hold readings of the Ramayana in their halls. Visitors are welcome at most of these, but they are places of worship first. Greetings are often given with folded hands, and it is polite to accept a blessing or prasad graciously rather than refuse it.

Respect also means being mindful of the riverside. Keep to the steps and paths, do not throw rubbish into the water, and avoid loud music near temples. When you visit a temple or ashram, take off your shoes at the entrance, cover your shoulders and knees, and ask before photographing people at prayer or during aarti.

What to wear

Rishikesh dresses for two worlds: the Himalayan hill communities that shape its culture, and the pilgrims and travellers who arrive from the plains. Traditional dress across Garhwal is practical and modest, built around wool and cotton. Hill communities have long worn woollen shawls and warm layers against cold mountain air, and handwoven cotton remains common for everyday clothes. Women have often worn long skirts or wrapped garments with a shawl, while men wear simple kurtas or long tunics with trousers, and more traditional dress appears at festivals, weddings and temple events.

What people wear now is mixed. Shops and streets are full of jeans, T-shirts, kurtas and salwar kameez, and saris are common at weddings and formal occasions. Sadhus and ashram residents often wear saffron or ochre cloth, and many yoga teachers dress in loose cotton. Western clothes are everywhere in the busier parts of town, but local women and older men tend to keep to more covered styles.

For a visitor in Rishikesh, the sensible choice is loose, lightweight cotton or linen that covers shoulders and knees, especially at temples, ashrams and the ghats. Carry a light shawl for cool evenings and a warmer layer for trips into the hills. Choose sturdy closed shoes or sandals with easy straps, because you will remove them often and the riverside paths are uneven. Save swimwear for the water away from the main steps.

What to eat

Plan it

Best time. October and November are the most comfortable months, with warm days, little rain and clearer views of the hills, while April to June is the hottest stretch. June to September is the monsoon, bringing heavy rain, slippery paths and disruption on the roads into the hills. Winter nights can be cold.

How long. 2–3

Getting there. Fly into Jolly Grant Airport at Dehradun, then take a taxi for the road transfer. The train is simplest: Yog Nagari Rishikesh station (YNRK) has long-distance express trains to Delhi and Kolkata, and pre-paid autos and taxis wait outside. Many express trains run to Haridwar, with some continuing to Rishikesh.

Budget. low

Tips

Etiquette

Nearby

Sources