The Beatles in India

By Paul Saltzman
Preface by Tim B. Wride
Foreword by Donovan Leitch

Super Deluxe Limited Edition

• Numbered Limited Edition, limited to 350 copies
• 105 pages, including 69 pgs. of color illustrations, 12 copper and 5 vellum pgs. & 28 mendhi designs
• Full leather, hand bound book
• Padded hardcover book 14 1/2×11″
• Encased in a 18 1/2×14″ clamshell box
• Clamshell box wrapped in Japanese Asahi silk
• Limited Edition 11×14″ photographic C-print: The Beatles in Rishikesh-1968 [upper right], museum-quality, limited to 350 ($800 value).
• Special Edition DVD with Paul Saltzman
• Special Edition CD: Craig Pruess’ Beatles music

In 1968, the Beatles wrote forty–eight songs in fewer than eight weeks in India. Now, on the 25th anniversary of John Lennon’s death, and the 40th anniversary of George Harrison’s ground-breaking introduction of the sitar in Norwegian Wood—an event that would change the face of rock ‘n’ roll music forever—The Beatles in India Super Deluxe and Special Limited Edition books are being released to commemorate the single most creative period in the history of the most important rock band the world has known.

These two elegantly designed, large format, collector’s box sets celebrate the unparalleled majesty of the Beatles’ music and creativity, as well as the intimacy of Paul Saltzman’s unique photographs and candid text.

Paul Saltzman’s meditative photographs from the ashram are unique. You never see the Beatles like this. We threw off our Western clothes. We took up our silk pantaloons. We could be ourselves again. And who ourselves were—who ourselves are—we were keen to find out.

– Donovan Leitch

Paul Saltzman’s photos of all of us in India, in 1968, are absolutely beautiful. The photo of John, finger to his ear, is the best picture I’ve ever seen of John Lennon from the Beatles’ era—it speaks volumes.

– Cynthia Lennon

Saltzman’s images are irresistible—the more one looks into them, the more they relinquish their secrets. Tiny details and unnoticed associations coalesce around the unplanned and the unexpected.

– Tim B. Wride
Curator of Photography

The intimacy of these frames is remarkable—some of the best I have seen—providing a significant addition to the detail of the most important rock group the world has known.

– Stephen Maycock
Curator of Rock 'n' Roll Memorabilia

I love Paul’s pictures of the Beatles. His photographs are so personal. He’s captured them as they were.

– Astrid Kirchherr

In December 1967, 23 year-old Paul Saltzman traveled to India in search of himself. To his great surprise, he found the Beatles in India. Paul spent a magical week at the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi's ashram. He learned meditation and hung out with John, Paul, George and Ringo. Thirty years later, he found the photos he'd shot and put away in a cardboard box: The Beatles in India.

"...like a footprint left in the sand, and I'm reminded of the path that's been washed away and the Greek proverb, 'You can never enter the same river twice.' As the ashram I knew is gone, so too are the Beatles. And yet, we can evoke their magic through their music, their words, and their photographs."

Paul Saltzman