ABSTRACT
The Adhiparasakthi Movement is an India-based goddess tradition focused on achieving both spiritual and social aims. This contemporary guru-led tradition under the leadership of Indian guru Bangaru Adigalar (1941–2023) represents a contemporary current within modern Hinduism that demonstrates women in leadership positions transnationally. The directive encouraging women to hold positions of leadership has been instrumental in shaping this tradition. This chapter is based on ethnographic fieldwork during 2019–2020 among North American devotees from the USA and Canada visiting the Adhiparasakthi temple in Melmaruvathur, Tamil Nadu, India. It examines the ways in which a priority consideration for humanitarian equity promoted within the Adhiparasakthi movement has both modified and challenged traditional views of gender and ritual authority from within a religious framework and helped expand the purview of women’s religious expression and agency.
