Jhulelal: The God of Water in Sindhi Community

Jhulelal: India and Pakistan both share common cultures, the Hinduism and Islam. Today, there’s not much of a good bond between the two, however, in the earlier centuries, they cherished as brother religions. Around the 10th century, there were several people helping strengthen the relationship between people of the two religions. Probably the most famous of all were Dariyalal and Zinda Pir, jointly called as the Jhulelal.

There are many meanings associated with the joint name; some say it is a reference to the community God and others say that it refers to a Sufi saint. Theories also suggest that the name was given due to the fact that both Hindus and Muslims worshiped each others religions.

Vighna hare mangal kare, kare sarva kalyan ||

Ghar bahar raksha kare, shri Jhulelal Bhagwan ||

Jhulelal’s presence in India and Pakistan

As per the locals, it is said that Jhulelal was born in the area of Sindh, which is now in the Western part of Pakistan. The Jhulelal’s shrine is located in Matirari district (40 km away from Sindh’s Sanghar District), at the Udero Lal town.

Nonetheless, it does not impact the worship of Indian natives. The most famous temple associated to Jhulelal in India is the Mandir Nadiad, which is pegged in Gujarat.

Jhulelal’s vision

Jhulelal was said to be standing for the statement ‘God is one and he has created this world.’ They were against the ill practices of dividing people according to religion that too based on the theory of different gods for these different religions. Jhulelal was devoted to the preaching of this ‘one god’ vision.

Emergence of Jhulelal

To trace back the emergence of Jhulelal, we need to look back to the days of Sapt-Sindhus. The Muslims were gaining control over the major provinces of India; one of them was Sindh. Following the conquer; they started spreading Muslimism amongst the native people. “Spread Islam and you shall go to the heaven after death,” was their main slogan that was used to influence people. Although some part of the population converted without much of rebel, the others stood for their religion.

Seeing this, Mirkshah, an Islamic representative, summoned the representatives of Hinduism. He ordered them to convert the Islam. He also told that if any of the Hindu representatives did not agree to do so, they would be killed. After forty days of the consideration period, the Hindu representatives agreed to his royal Farman.

At that fortieth day, the Hindu representatives heard a voice, seemingly from heaven “Fear not, I will save you all from Mirkshah. I will come down and take birth in the womb of Devki Mata, in the home of Ratanchand Lohano, Nasarpur.” The Hindus excitedly awaited for the new of deliverer’s birth.

Around three months later, the Hindus were spread with joy, as they gained the confirmation of the deliverer’s birth. It was the River God, who had incarnated him in the Mata Devki’s womb.

The second day of the new moon of Chaitra marked the birth of a boy child. As soon as the baby opened his mouth, a Sindhu appeared, sitting in crossed leg position on a fish. For the welcome, the clouds brought unseasonal rain out of nowhere. The child was given the name ‘Udaichand,’ which means light in the darkness. He was also popularly called as ‘Uderolal.’ Because of this name only that the child was known as “Jhulelal,” the meaning of which was a fashionable child. Soon after the birth of Jhulelal, Devki Mata died.

This news reached the ears of Mirkshah somehow and hearing the same, he mocked the Hindus, who had become confident that their savior had come, by saying, “Neither you people are going to leave this land alive nor I am going to die. I am sure that you will also follow the suit to join Islam when your savior also does so.” The practice of Mirkshah continued. Meanwhile, he asked one of the ministers to go to Nasarpur to see upon things by himself. As Ahiro wasn’t ready to take any chance, he brought a poisoned rose with him to the place.

Taking a look at the child, Ahiro was surprised, as he had never seen any child with so much charm. After some hesitation, he offered the rose to the baby boy. The boy passed on a smile, then blew away the petals of the rose with a single breath. The petals floated and fell on top of Ahiro’s feet. Suddenly, the child turned into an old man, who held a sword on his back. The man had a long beard, and he was backed by warriors. Ahiro instantly bowed down and said, “Have mercy on me, Sindhi Lord; I am fully convinced.”

Ahiro, after reaching back, told this incident to Mirkshah. Yet, Mirkshah wasn’t convinced enough. He stated that Ahiro might have been fooled by a magic trick or something like that. Later that night, a strange incident happened with Mirkshah. He dreamt of a man with flowing beard who confronted Mirkshah on the battlefield. Terrified by that dream, Mirkshah called Ahiro the next morning and ordered him to counter the threat possessed by the child. However, Ahiro told Mirkshah to keep things slow and not do anything in haste.

During the time, Uderolal grew up and all of his magical wonders were spreading joy in Hindu people. Mirkshah ordered Ahiro to arrange a private meeting with Uderolal after receiving repeated suppression from Islam officials.

During the meet, Udero explained Mirkshah about the unity of religions and the creation of the world by a single God. Meanwhile, the maulvis, who went along with Mirkshah, were continuously ordering Mirkshah to not consider the talks of Udero. Soldiers were ordered to arrest Udero, however, great waves of water started to emerge and fire also broke out from nowhere. This led to the sealing off escape routes from the courtyard. Udero followed up by saying “your god and mine are same. Then, why do you persecute my people?”

Mirkshah realized the words of Udero; begged Udero to save him and his officials. Mirkshah also agreed to treat Hindus and Muslims equally. This led to the emergence of Uderolal or Jhulelal.