Jhulelal, Gorakhnath and the Hindu Sindhi Diaspora

In the last decade or so, popular websites managed by the Sindhi diaspora have claimed a connection between Jhulelal, their legendary hero and chosen deity (iṣṭa deva), and Gorakhnath, the founder of the Saiva order of Nath yogis. In addition, recent poster art, iconography and Sindhi panjaras (five-lined devotional poems) now portray Jhulelal as a yogi receiving guru-mantra from Gorakhnath and making a pilgrimage to Hinglaj Devi, the renowned Siva-Sakti pilgrimage site on the Sindh-Baluchistan border. At first glance, the intertwining of the paths of Jhulelal and Gorakhnath seems somewhat improbable, because the two figures hail from discrete Hindu sects with radically different theologies and rituals. Moreover, to the best of my knowledge, no hagiography or panjara prior to Partition suggests a link between the two deified saints.