ABSTRACT
Hinduism challenges scholars to think expansively about charismatic authority and its power to construct religious belief and practice. The most visible examples of charismatic authority in Hindu traditions are its gurus, those believed to have special access to divinity or regarded as divine incarnations (avatārs). But this understanding is based on the broader Hindu notion that divine presence is active and immanent in the world: humans, material objects, and geographies are permeable and receptive to its śakti (energy). Thus, gurus, but also personified sacred material objects and geographies, attract devotees and assert their religious authority through the power of charisma.
