CHICAGO – 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 re-spected 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.

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 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 mandirs, or temples.

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.

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.

“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.