Adam Coggeshall wobbles down a sloped pathway on an orange children’s tricycle with white jasmine flowers tied to the frame. Behind him, his closest friends and family cheer as he recreates a modern riff on a baraat, or a groom’s Hindu wedding procession.
The bride, Sejal Vyas, gazes across the lawn to see her family and closest friends seated beside each other in neat rows, with the Charles River shimmering in the background.
Typically, in India, the groom arrives on an elephant or horse, but it was clear from the start that this ceremony would be different.
Why We Wrote This
Traditionally, Hindu priests are male and Brahmin. Ranjan Ravaliya is neither. And younger women, especially from immigrant families, are seeking her out to perform their wedding ceremonies. Part of our series on women of faith.
The first to greet Mr. Coggeshall that Saturday evening was Ranjan Ravaliya, draped in a pastel orange and blue sari.
Traditionally, priests in Hinduism are male and Brahmin. Dr. Ravaliya is neither.
Known as The New England Priest, she is the only female Hindu priest in the greater Boston area – and one of just a handful in the United States. As a woman who does not hail from the traditional priestly class, she is challenging both casteism and patriarchal standards in the South Asian community. Increasingly, Indian American millennials in the West are turning to women priests like Dr. Ravaliya to break from traditions often steeped in patriarchy.
“These [customs] are rejected by the young brides that are getting married these days. They want something that is contemporary, and they want something based on their belief system,” Dr. Ravaliya says. “Equality is one of [those beliefs].”
There is not an exact equivalent to a Christian priest or pastor within Hinduism, explains Vasudha Narayanan, a professor of religion at the University of Florida. The religion, which has 1.2 billion followers, predominantly in India, is the third-largest and is considered the oldest continuing religion in the world.
There are generally two main types of priests. Brahmins traditionally were the only caste allowed to serve as priests, perform sacred rites, maintain temples, and preserve sacred texts. Purohitas, such as Dr. Ravaliya, are trained to officiate weddings and domestic ceremonies.
There are just a handful of women in the U.S. who have taken on a similar role as Dr. Ravaliya, including Hersh Khetarpal in Chicago and Achala Bapat in Texas, Dr. Narayanan says.
“Women priests are particularly sought after or accepted by younger couples who may want something not very traditional,” she adds.
“The New England Priest”
Dr. Ravaliya has carved out a niche ministering to couples whom traditional Hindu priests could not, or were unwilling, to marry. Her clients include Muslim-Hindu, interracial, and same-sex couples, who are often marginalized in both Indian and American society.
Tanya Raghu/The Christian Science Monitor
During the wedding ceremony, when it comes time for the Kanyadan, a tradition where the bride is “donated” and the groom’s feet are washed, Mr. Coggeshall uncomfortably shakes his head.
“I have a replacement for that,” Dr. Ravaliya swiftly interjects. “I call it mutual consent.”
While Dr. Ravaliya performs rituals and recites verses in Sanskrit, she adds modern twists on tradition and combines customs in interfaith ceremonies.
Since 2021, she has officiated about 60 weddings and 40 pujas, or rituals. At the Boston ceremony in July, with guests from the bride’s side from India and the groom’s family from the United States, Dr. Ravaliya provides an English translation while peppering in jokes that incite chuckles from the audience.
“Every time I recite a shloka [verse], I will explain the important words,” Dr. Ravaliya says from the stage at the wedding. “That way, everyone gets a zest of it.”
Dr. Ravaliya, who hails from Gujarat, in western India, says that attending elementary school in Mahatma Gandhi’s hometown shaped her. Equality between genders was instilled in her from an early age.
While her father attempted to find her a potential husband, she pursued higher education, earning a doctorate in chemistry. After breaking off an arranged marriage, she lived in the United Kingdom before immigrating to Boston in 1984.
After a three-decade career as an environmental scientist, the pandemic put a pause on funding. That’s when she made an unexpected career switch.
Her nephew, Swapnil Shah, who grew up in Britain and the United States, asked her to officiate his wedding to a British woman.
“We are living in an English society and then we have these pockets or spaces we carve out for ourselves where we partake in Indian rituals, religious or otherwise,” Mr. Shah says from his home in London.
“You want to feel like the wedding ceremony that you’re having fits with your entire identity rather than just your Indian identity or American identity,” Mr. Shah says. “She kind of bridges that gap.”
To feel more prepared for the role, Dr. Ravaliya spent six weeks in India learning the Vedic teachings. The next year, when her niece, Mr. Shah’s sister, was getting married, Dr. Ravaliya was once again called to the podium.
That’s when her family began affectionately calling her “the high priestess.” The nickname would take on resonance in the coming years.
“We are in a patriarchal society, right?” Dr. Ravaliya says. “It is threatening to a lot of people, a woman being a priest. I never, myself, think that I can’t do it, or shouldn’t do it.”
Back in India, there are more schools that are training women to perform rituals and officiate weddings. Most notably, a group called the Shubhamastu collective where many of the women do not reveal their last name that indicates their caste.
While objections against the women are not voiced loudly in Indian society, the priests can have a difficult time finding clients, says Ute Hüsken, a professor of South Asian studies at Heidelberg University in Germany.
“One major objection is that they are acting against the Sanskrit texts because in the texts, only male priests are actually mentioned or described as being eligible,” Dr. Hüsken says.
A shift among South Asian millennials?
Increasingly, Indian American millennials, whose parents are immigrants to the United States or Europe, are looking to women priests to bridge the gap between tradition and modernity.
Divya Jain, who lives in New York City, stumbled upon Dr. Ravaliya’s services on Facebook when she was making arrangements for her wedding last year. She practices Jainism, while her husband is Hindu. She wanted a priest who could understand both religions. The fact that they both held doctorate degrees in a STEM field made Dr. Ravaliya particularly appealing to her.
“In my generation and younger, we aren’t really as connected to religion and to these organized kinds of things as I think our parents or even generations prior are,” Dr. Jain says. “I think having some fresh voices and some new interpretations of existing scriptures might be able to bring more people back to these institutions.”
Nishant Pandya, a guest at the Boston wedding, got married two years ago in Philadelphia. He and his wife looked, but were unable to find a female priest for their own ceremony.
“Getting to see a priestess, that’s a really exciting moment,” he says.
