RISHIKESH
Good for mala beads, singing bowls, and yoga wear at fair prices if you bargain — but 'silver' jewelry and 'authentic rudraksha' sold by street vendors near the ghats are frequently fake; buy rudraksha only from established shops that provide a receipt.
The bazaars clustered around Ram Jhula and Tapovan grew out of Rishikesh's transformation from a quiet pilgrimage town into an international spiritual-tourism hub, a shift accelerated after the Beatles' widely publicized 1968 stay at Maharishi Mahesh Yogi's ashram put Rishikesh on the Western counterculture map. Rishikesh subsequently became a stop on the 1960s-70s hippie trail through South Asia, and the shops, ashrams and eateries that sprang up to serve those travelers evolved over decades into today's markets selling yoga wear, Rudraksha beads, brassware and Ayurvedic goods alongside the older pilgrim trade in religious items.
