The Beatles' White Album - the band's largest and most freewheeling collection of songs - has a special connection to India. Most of the songs were written during their famous sojourn half a century ago at Maharishi Mahesh Yogi's ashram at Rishikesh in the foothills of the Himalayas. So it was both thrilling and daunting to be the only participant from India at an international symposium in the US celebrating the 50th anniversary of what many consider as the most ambitious venture of the Fab Four whose legacy in popular music and culture looms larger than ever.

Sponsored by the Bruce Springsteen Archives and Center for American Music and organised on the picturesque campus of Monmouth University in New Jersey in November, the four-day conference brought together Beatles scholars, popular culture experts, musicians, insiders who had worked closely with the band and die hard fans.

The simultaneous release of the 50th anniversary edition, which added previously unheard demo recordings to a bright new mix of the double album, helped make this a rare opportunity to explore fresh dimensions of The Beatles at a time when they were falling apart and, yet, at their creative best. Listening sessions of the long sought after 'Esher' tapes (named after George Harrison's English country home where the band recorded the White Album in the summer and fall of 1968 after coming back from Rishikesh) were accompanied by wide-ranging discussions led by top Beatles experts that included leading historian of the band Mark Lewisohn, veteran American discographer Bruce Spizer and columnist for Rolling Stone magazine Rob Sheffield.

At my own presentation, those chroniclers and the broader audience proved especially intrigued to hear an Indian account of the band's fascinating three-year path to Rishikesh -which began the day George Harrison picked up a sitar at the film set of Help and ended with John Lennon's controversial spat with the Maharishi at his Himalayan ashram.

A session on 'The Legacy of Rishikesh' that I moderated was edifying for me as well.

Susan Shumsky, a disciple and member of the personal staff of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, provided valuable insights into his personality and his complex relationship with The Beatles. She revealed that the guru did have sexual liaisons with several female disciples supporting Lennon's allegation and the ostensible reason why he and Harrison left the ashram. However, Shumsky pointed out that Lennon's own desperation to get back to London to his Japanese girlfriend Yoko Ono and a dispute between The Beatles and the Maharishi over the production of a film on them may have been the real reasons for their abrupt falling out.

At the other sessions, however, the huge influence of India on the White Album received surprisingly scant attention. For instance, famous American musicologist John Covach was nearly 40 minutes into his hour-long presentation on 'George Harrison's Path to the White Album' before he event mentioned Hindustani classical music.

The highlight of the symposium was Mark Lewisohn's brilliant deconstruction of the White Album and the Beatles saga through analysis, audio-visual slides and Esher tape recordings. "The Beatles may have fought each other outside the studio, but inside they combined to give their best," he explained.

Perhaps that is why they were the greatest band ever.