Women Pujaris

Amid the noise and bustle of downtown Chicago, the groom rode a white horse, shaking to Indian drumbeats in procession to the Palmer House Hilton hotel.

Inside, the bride and groom took seats under the red mandap, or wedding canopy, and the priest began chanting in a high, melodic voice.

For some, the chants heard at the service last month sounded like a break from Hindu custom. Priests are traditionally men, but the presiding priest at this wedding was Shashi Tandon, a respected female elder in the Hindu community and the groom’s grandmother.

Since emigrating from New Delhi in 1982, Tandon has presided over countless religious ceremonies for Hindu families in Chicago, Michigan, Wisconsin and elsewhere, filling a void that has emerged because of a shortage of Hindu priests.

As more Hindu men enter more lucrative, secular professions, Tandon and a handful of Hindu women in America have begun performing priestly duties as a way of passing their faith to the next generation.

There is nothing in Hindu scripture that bars women from becoming priests, also known as pandits.

But in some parts of India and the United States, women priests face resistance from conservative Hindus clinging to tradition. Tandon, 68, a retired teacher with a feisty attitude, recalled a group of men mocking her at one wedding she performed. They asked, How can a woman be a priest?

“I said to them, ‘I have a question for you. Can you tell me who gave birth to you?'” she said. “The mother is the true priest. She is the true teacher, the first teacher of the child.”

Neelima Shukla-Bhatt, a South Asian studies professor at Wellesley College in Massachusetts, said more Hindu women are learning priestly functions not necessarily because they feel drawn to religious life. Rather, women – including Shukla-Bhatt – are stepping forward to meet the growing Hindu community’s needs.

According to the American Religious Identification Survey, there were about 227,000 Hindus in the United States in 1990, composed mainly of Asian Indians. Today there are more than 1 million Hindus in the nation and more than 700 Hindu temples.

The Chicago area is home to some 80,000 Hindus, according to a Chicago-based interfaith re­search group.

Although no firm numbers exist, Shukla-Bhatt said fewer Hindu-American men are becoming priests. In her own family, she noted that her father’s cousins were all priests, yet none of their children took up the profession.

“At one time, it was considered prestigious, but now it is not considered prestigious at all,” she said. “If you are educated, you do something more secular. It is considered to be a sign of less educated, less sophisticated, so not many educated people are interested in becoming priests.”

Shukla-Bhatt said many of the earliest Hindu texts speak of women priests. In Hinduism’s most ancient book, the Vedas, there are multiple references to women making sacrifices and participating in philosophical debates. But, at some point, things changed.

“It’s not that women weren’t allowed to do this. It’s that somewhere along the line, it got lost, and it became mainly a male profession,” she said. “But in the most ancient scriptures, there were women priests. So, we should reclaim that.”

Tandon’s grandson, Nitin Malhotra, said having his grandmother perform his wedding last month was an obvious choice. As a child, Malhotra said his grandmother taught him the importance of faith and puja in daily life.

Puja is a sacred ritual that involves fire, bells and chanted prayers to deities. Her fluency in English and Sanskrit, and her vivid explanations of religious rituals are the main reasons that Tandon gained widespread popularity in the Hindu community.

“She taught us how to do puja and chants. And, she explains everything so well that you never felt like it was a chore,” Malhotra said. “All these people know about her and fly her to different places to do their ceremonies. We feel really blessed to have her.”

Tandon was born in the Pakistani city of Multan, which was then in India, and raised in New Delhi. Her mother taught her how to do daily fire rituals. She concedes that she didn’t like it very much at first. However, once she learned the meaning, she felt a desire to be a priest. She studied in an ashram, learned the scriptures and received training to perform all 16 samskaras, the sacraments or rites of passage for every Hindu. Later, she opened a school for poor girls to teach them the Hindu faith.

“I would sit under a big tree and teach them how to respect each other, help society, how to read scripture. I felt this was my calling,” she said.

Her three children married and immigrated to Chicago, where Tandon joined them. Recently, she moved to Kalamazoo, Mich., to live with her son, Arun Tandon, and daughter, Renu Sharma. Another daughter, Anu Malhotra, lives in Naperville., Ill.

In explaining her mother’s role as a priest, Sharma said: “It’s not a profession for her. She doesn’t do this for money. It’s part of who she is as a being.”

In India, the concept of women priests is not new. In fact, in the progressive western city of Pune, there are two schools that train women.

However, those in other regions say female priests are a violation of Vedic law. Some Hindu immigrants from those regions who have come to the United States have been shocked to find women performing religious rituals. Anu Malhotra said her daughter-in-law’s family, who are from Gujarat, were surprised when told the wedding would be performed by Tandon.

“In India, each state has its own culture. So for many Hindus, this is a new thing,” she said. “People don’t see it as much. It’s not the norm.”

As more women come forward, they have begun to gain appreciation and respect, especially among second-generation Hindu-Americans.

Tandon believes many women are losing touch with their religion and are not passing traditions to their children.

“Mothers came to America because they didn’t have enough freedom. Then, after getting freedom, they forgot their culture,” she said. “They are not doing prayers because they don’t know why they need to do them.”

For that reason, Tandon is training her two daughters to perform religious ceremonies. At some point, the community’s growth could lead to the creation of a school for women priests. Until then, she said she will continue to perform services, educating future generations on the rituals and their meaning.

“Every single step of worship has a meaning. Do you know why we use fire? Some Hindus don’t even know,” she said. “Fire gives us light and for us, light is truth.”