S. Priyadarsini was born in India and raised in Chennai, Tamil Nadu. She arrived in the U.S. in 1969, receiving her Ph.D. in Sociology from Rutgers University in 1977. She was an Associate Visiting Research Professor in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology at Rutgers-Newark, NJ. She taught various courses in Sociology and Indian Civilization at several colleges and universities. She was the president of a travel company in New York City for 18 years. In that context, she has traveled extensively and lived around the world.