Kailash Ashram Brahmavidyapeeth

Kailash Ashram Brahmavidyapeeth — formally Shri Kailash Brahmavidya Peeth, and often simply called Kailash Ashram — is among the oldest and most academically revered ashrams in Rishikesh.

• It was founded in 1880 by Swami Dhanraj Giri, a distinguished Advaita Vedantist, after the ruler of the erstwhile Tehri (Garhwal) state granted him land at Muni Ki Reti to establish a residential school for the study of the Vedas and Vedanta.
• At a time when Rishikesh was little more than a waystation for individual seekers and pilgrims bound for the Char Dham, Kailash Ashram was one of the first large institutional ashrams here, and it helped set the template for the town's later flowering as a centre of spiritual learning.
• The ashram's enduring fame rests on the calibre of the scholars who passed through its cloisters.
• Swami Vivekananda is recorded to have spent time here, and Swami Abhedananda — a direct monastic disciple of Ramakrishna — studied Vedanta as a resident student under Dhanraj Giri for several months.
• Swami Rama Tirtha and other renowned monks are likewise associated with the peeth.
• The institution follows an unbroken guru-shishya (teacher-disciple) lineage of Peethacharyas and specialises in the Prasthana Traya — the Bhagavad Gita, the principal Upanishads, and the Brahma Sutras, studied with Adi Shankaracharya's classical commentaries.
• A temple dedicated to Shankaracharya stands within the complex, and the ashram maintains a notable library reported to hold thousands of volumes and hundreds of rare manuscripts, alongside an active publication department producing scholarly works on Shankara Vedanta.
• For the visitor, Kailash Ashram is a working monastic school rather than a tourist attraction, so it rewards quiet, respectful visits over sightseeing.
• It sits at Kailash Gate on the Muni Ki Reti stretch of the Haridwar road, a short walk or auto ride from Ram Jhula, and the gate itself takes its name from the ashram.
• Traditionally the community was restricted to sannyasins (renunciates), though in recent years short structured courses on the Gita, Upanishads and Brahma Sutras have opened limited residencies to sincere lay practitioners.
• Dress modestly, remove footwear where indicated, keep silence around study and worship, and ask before photographing.
• As Rishikesh and neighbouring Muni Ki Reti are holy towns that are entirely vegetarian and alcohol-free by convention and law, the surrounding lanes are wholly meat-free: simple satvik bhojanalayas and the pure-vegetarian eateries clustered near Ram Jhula make it easy to pair a visit with an honest sattvik meal.