Udero Lal was born on Cheti Chand, the first day of the Sindhi month Cheti and also the first day of what is known as the Chaitradi year—the year that begins with the month of Cheti or Chaitra instead of the month of Kartak. In Udero Lal’s honour the Government offices throughout Sind are closed. So in common gratitude every Government officer ought to enquire who Udero Lal was. He was the son of an aged couple called Ratno and Devki, who lived at Nasarpur. Ratno hawked cooked gram and was a devout worshipper of the Indus river. They had two sons already, but had long passed the age when married couples hope for more children. Ratno was sixty and Devki over forty, when Udero Lal was born. But Udero Lal’s birth was due to divine interposition. The cause of it was as follows:—
In the year 939 A.D. one Marak was governor of Tatta. He was a bigoted Musulman and he suddenly resolved to convert to Islam the whole Hindu population under him. He proclaimed by beat of drum, that he would kill every Hindu, who did not change his faith within twenty-four hours. So alarmed [13]were the Hindus that, so the story runs, all their cooking pots fell from their shelves; and exclaiming that a camel had entered the king’s head1, they went in a body to his minister Aho. Through him they gained a fortnight’s respite. At that time, so the legend has it, the Indus flowed past Tatta. On its banks the despairing Hindus gathered and prayed to the great river to save them from the hands of Marak. At the same time they vowed that if no answer was vouchsafed to their prayers within a week, they would throw their children into the stream. On the fourteenth day they would with their wives in their arms throw themselves into it and thus escape the cruelty of Marak.
On the seventh day when they were on the point of drowning all their babies, they saw the river god himself rise from the waves, a beautiful figure, all of snow-white foam. He bade the Hindus no longer despair. He had heard their supplications and within the allotted fortnight he would be born in the house of Ratno, the gram hawker. He bade them warn Marak of his approaching birth. They did so and the wicked governor sent Aho to seize the baby directly it was born. The child Udero Lal arrived on the last day of the fortnight. Aho was about to seize it, when it changed instantly into a youth of sixteen, then into an old man and once more into an infant. Aho was dumbfounded and his hatred and unbelief changed to love and faith. He begged the child to return with him to Marak, so as to convince him also. The babe replied “Go back to Tatta. There stand on the banks of the Indus and call me and I shall come.”
Aho went back to Tatta and told Marak. The governor was frightened out of his wits, still he ordered Aho to go to the river bank and call on Udero Lal to rise from the river. Aho did so and as the words left his lips, a tall beautiful youth, riding [14]a noble steed, rose from the river and behind him followed thousands of soldiers and horsemen, chariots and war elephants. The terrified minister fell at Udero Lal’s feet and begged him to send away the mighty army that followed in his footsteps. The youth turned round and dismissed his warriors. A moment later the great army had vanished into the depths of the Indus. Aho led Udero Lal into Marak’s presence and told him the marvels that he had witnessed. Marak instantly seated Udero Lal on his right hand and craved his advice. Udero Lal bade him to cease from his cruelty to his Hindu subjects. But while Marak listened with pious looks to Udero Lal’s words, his heart was full of black treachery. After he had escorted with all reverence the beautiful youth to one of his palaces, he ordered his soldiers to surround it. For he now plotted to convert to Islam not only his Hindu subjects but Udero Lal also. But it was idle to strive to bind the Indus river. When the kazi and the surgeon came to convert him he had vanished.
The indignant Marak resolved not to give his Hindu subjects a day’s more grace and announced that he would convert or kill them all that very evening. They went to Ratno’s house. There they found Udero Lal, once more a baby in the cradle. They prayed to the divine child and he bade them go to the river and sit in a temple that they would find there. When all the Hindus had assembled, a fearful thunderstorm burst and fire from heaven consumed the palace of the governor and the houses of his officers. Marak, Aho and the kazi, although badly burnt, escaped from the conflagration and ran to the river. There they saw a splendid temple and in it were seated Udero Lal, once more a beautiful youth and round him thousands of Hindus, perfectly sheltered from the storm that had fallen on Tatta. The three wicked men fell at Udero Lal’s [15]feet and Marak took a mighty oath never again to harass the Hindus. Udero Lal then bade the winds be still and the storm at once passed away. Udero Lal vanished and so did the magic temple. But the Hindus built on the spot a real one of stone that stands to this day. Lights burn in it day and night and it is known as the Khudio temple or the temple of Refuge.
When the Hindus went to Nasarpur to tell Ratno and Devki how their child had helped them, they found Udero Lal once more a baby sleeping peacefully in his cradle. Nothing further happened until Udero Lal was a little boy of six, when his mother Devki thought that he might help his father by hawking cooked gram too. She gave him a tiny jar of cooked gram and bade him hawk it through the streets of Nasarpur, taking payment either in cash or in kind. That evening Udero Lal brought back a huge pot full of grain and gave it to his mother. This went on for several days until his parents grew more and more curious to know how he got grain many times its value for the cooked gram. Next day they followed him and they saw their little son go to the river bank and dip the jar of cooked gram into the water. When he pulled it out again, it had become a great pot brimming over with grain. When Udero Lal was ten and old enough to be invested with the sacred thread, he asked to be given a guru. He took his father and mother to the river bank and found sitting near it the great God Shiva. Udero Lal went up fearlessly to the mighty God and told him that he had come in search of a guru. The god replied “Why do you, who are the guru of gurus, want a guru?” Udero Lal pleaded that even Vishnu’s avatars, such as Rama and Krishna had had their gurus, why then should one be denied to him? It so chanced that the saint Gorakhnath passed by at that moment and Shiva bade him [16]take Udero Lal as his pupil. Gorakhnath did so and taught him all his holiness and wisdom.
Now Udero Lal had a cousin called Phugar, who was greatly attached to him. He made Phugar his disciple and taught him the learning which he had received from Gorakhnath. One day to test Phugar’s faith he told him that he wished to be alone and meditate. But Phugar refused to leave his master’s side. “Will you plunge with me into the Indus?” asked Udero Lal. “Where you go, I go,” was the reply. Udero Lal took his cousin’s hand and dived into the river. A few minutes later they came to the surface and found themselves in mid-stream between Rohri and Sukkur. In front of them was a little island on which they climbed. This was the famous island of Zinda Pir, of whom more hereafter. Master and pupil stayed there some weeks until Udero Lal learnt that Ratno and Devki were both very ill at Nasarpur. He reached his birthplace in time to bid them farewell. But their deaths preyed on his mind and he longed to rejoin the mighty river from which he had sprung. He first called to him his elder brothers Somo and Bhayandev and bade them give up the things of this world and like Phugar become his disciples. But though they promised always to worship light and water, they would not give up all and follow him. Udero Lal then declared that Phugar would be his only disciple. He called him and gave him the following seven gifts:—
When twelve years old Udero Lal bade Phugar choose a spot, whereon to build him a temple, as he meant soon to leave the earth. Phugar chose an open field owned by a Memon. The saint asked the Memon to give him the land. The Memon refused but offered to sell it. Udero Lal scratched with his spear the surface of the earth and shewed the astonished Memon treasures of gold and silver. Then he drove his spear deep into the ground and it became a mighty kabar tree. The Memon was so startled that he went away to take counsel of his wife. On his return he bade the saint take the field as a gift. All he asked, was that he might be the majavar or attendant of Udero Lal’s tomb. The saint blessed him and promised him that his life long he would never lack food. Udero Lal took another spear and smote the ground with it. Up spouted a fountain of clear water. He mounted his horse; the earth opened in front of him. Spurring his horse he leapt into the yawning pit.
At first Phugar was broken-hearted and nearly died of grief. One night he saw in a dream Udero Lal who bade him put away his grief and build a temple on the spot where the saint had vanished. Where the water had spouted from the ground he was to sink a well and near it to build a rest-house. When the saint’s wishes were known, all Nasarpur flocked to Phugar’s [18]aid. Even the wicked Marak and his minister and kazi offered their help. But while the Hindus wished to build a temple, Marak and the Musulmans wished to build a mosque and quarrels broke out between them. At last they resolved to take the advice of Udero Lal himself. All one night they kept vigil until they heard a voice that said “In my sight there is neither caste nor creed.” Pacified, they built both mosque and temple. Of the temple Phugar was made guardian and Marak named the Memon the mujavar of the mosque. From that day on, lamps have burnt night and day in both temple and mosque. The rest-house built by Phugar may be seen to this day and near it is the well, which grateful pilgrims have called Balambho or the well of ever-running water.