Uttarakhand

Practice kept by the river

Uttarakhand is where the Ganga comes down out of the Himalaya, and where the practice of yoga has been kept without a break for centuries. Above Rishikesh, the ashrams hold to a discipline far quieter and subtler than the version the world has exported. Breath before posture. Meditation before either.

It is a place of early rising and long silence, the river running cold and constant below. The teaching here is not a class. It is a way of ordering a whole day.

The places worth the journey

Rishikesh sits where the Ganga meets the plain, ringed by ashrams and the sound of the evening rite on the water. The Kumaon hills rise quieter to the east, terraced and forested. Higher still, the pilgrim valleys lead toward the shrines, and the river is never far from the ear.