Most research on ethical leadership examines the consequences and not antecedents. We aim to empirically examine spirituality as an antecedent of ethical leadership using from 108 leader-subordinate dyads. Further, we use Vedic Measure of Spirituality (VMS) to examine this relationship. Spirituality was self-rated by the leaders while subordinates rated their leader's ethical leadership behavior. All three dimensions of VMS, namely Fortitude, Introspective Reflection and Equanimity significantly predicted ethical leadership. Leaders with less tenure showed the highest positive impact of spirituality on ethical leadership, followed by middle tenure and high tenure. Female subordinates judged their leaders in a more stringent manner as compared to their male counterparts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]