The Theosophical Society’s founding and Asian networks

Record summary

Founded in New York in 1875, the Theosophical Society relocated major activities to India and established its international headquarters at Adyar near Madras. Helena Petrovna Blavatsky and Henry Steel Olcott promoted comparative religion, occult evolution, hidden adepts, and Asian religious sources, while building relationships with Hindu and Buddhist reformers. The organization is important for studying modern esotericism, colonial knowledge, and the selective appropriation of Asian traditions. Its paranormal claims and institutional controversies require separate treatment from its documented organizational history.