NEW DELHI — Chandraswamy, a Hindu holy man who counseled such 1980s glitterati as Elizabeth Taylor, the Saudi arms dealer Adnan Khashoggi and the Sultan of Brunei before coming under a barrage of criminal investigations, died here on May 23. He was 66.

A spokesman for Apollo Hospital said Chandraswamy had a stroke recently and died there.

Born Nemi Chand Jain, the son of a Rajasthani moneylender, Chandraswamy left home to study astrology and meditation, only to emerge a few years later as a “guru on the make,” said Vinay Sitapati, a political scientist who interviewed him for a book. How Chandraswamy spent the intervening time was never clear.

In the decades that followed, he built a vast network of political connections, most of them in the governing Indian National Congress, Mr. Sitapati said. In doing so he became an influential purveyor of information about India’s power centers and of that coveted good: access.

Rustic in appearance, with his wood staff and flowing beard, Chandraswamy proved skillful at winning the trust of international leaders, securing their confidence by rattling off the names of his influential confidants and performing such seemingly supernatural feats as mind reading.