Gorakhnath Temple (Gorakhnath Math)

Gorakhnath is remembered as a wandering yogi and teacher, a disciple of Guru Matsyendranath, whose life and writings became foundational to the Nath sampradaya, the monastic and hatha-yoga tradition that bears his name. His precise dates are not settled among historians, who variously place him across a few centuries in the medieval period; the temple itself preserves his samadhi shrine (memorial) and gaddi (ceremonial seat) at the spot where tradition says he undertook his sadhana. The city of Gorakhpur takes its own name from him, a measure of how completely he came to define the region’s religious identity.

Over time the math grew from a single shrine into a substantial religious institution: the present complex covers roughly 52 acres, with Gorakhnath’s samadhi chamber and gaddi at its heart alongside a deity gallery and a goshala (cow shelter), and functions as a major center for the Nath monastic order across eastern Uttar Pradesh and the Nepal Terai, drawing large numbers of pilgrims year-round and especially for the January Makar Sankranti Mela, when devotees offer khichdi at the shrine. Inside, an oil lamp known as the Akhand Jyoti is kept perpetually alight; temple tradition holds it has burned without interruption since Gorakhnath’s own time, though this is devotional claim rather than a historically documented fact.

In the modern era the math’s mahants (abbots) have combined spiritual headship with a prominent public role in regional politics: Digvijaynath led the math from 1935 to 1969, was active first in the Congress movement and later the Hindu Mahasabha; Avaidyanath succeeded him from 1969 to 2014 and was repeatedly elected as an MLA and MP; and the current mahant, Yogi Adityanath, who has headed the math since 2014, has also served as Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh, making Gorakhnath Math one of the few Indian monastic institutions whose head has simultaneously held the state’s top elected office.