Nath tradition places Gorakhnath as the principal disciple of Matsyendranath, a yogi and tantric teacher himself credited with foundational texts and practices that Gorakhnath is said to have systematized into the organized lineage later called the Nath Sampradaya, or the path of the Naths, the lords. Hagiographic accounts differ sharply on where and when Gorakhnath lived, some placing him as early as the ninth or tenth century and others as late as the twelfth, and scholars including David Gordon White treat this uncertainty as characteristic of a figure whose textual and legendary record accumulated gradually across centuries rather than being fixed by any single contemporary account.
What the tradition agrees on more consistently is Gorakhnath's role as an organizer: bringing together diverse strands of tantric and yogic practice current in medieval North India into a coherent teaching lineage, with its own initiation structure, monastic centers and body of attributed texts in Sanskrit and vernacular languages including Old Hindi and Punjabi.
Sites across North India and Nepal, including Gorakhpur in Uttar Pradesh, which takes its name directly from him, and cave shrines and hot springs said to mark places he practiced, remain active pilgrimage destinations for Nath yogis today, physical evidence of how thoroughly his name became attached to the tradition's living geography rather than remaining confined to text.