Gama Pehelwan
Gama in c. 1916
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| Birth name | Ghulam Mohammad Baksh |
|---|---|
| Born |
22 May 1878 Amritsar, Punjab, India |
| Died | 23 May 1960 (aged 82) Lahore, Punjab, Pakistan |
| Family |
Imam Baksh Pahalwan (brother) Kalsoom Nawaz Sharif (granddaughter) Mian Nawaz Sharif (Grand son-in-law) |
| Professional wrestling career | |
| Ring name(s) | Gama Pahalwan |
| Billed height | 5 ft 8 in (173 cm) |
| Billed weight | 250 lb (110 kg) |
Ghulam Mohammad Baksh (22 May 1878 – 23 May 1960), better known by the ring name The Great Gama, was a wrestler in India and later Pakistan.
Born in Amritsar in 1878, he was awarded the Indian version of the World Heavyweight Championship on 15 October 1910. Undefeated in a career spanning more than 52 years, he is considered one of the greatest wrestlers of all time.
Gama was born in the city of Amritsar into an ethnic Kashmiri family of wrestlers, in what was then the Punjab region of British India. He hailed from a prominent wrestling family which was known to produce world-class wrestlers. Gama had two wives: one in Pakistan and the other in Baroda, Gujarat, India.
After the death of his wrestler-father Muhammad Aziz Baksh when he was six, Gama was put under the care of his maternal grandfather and wrestler Nun Pahalwan. Following his death, Gama was taken care of by his uncle Ida, another wrestler, who also began training Gama in wrestling. He was first noticed at the age of ten, in 1888, when he entered a strongman competition held in Jodhpur, which included many gruelling exercises such as squats. The contest was attended by more than four hundred wrestlers and Gama was among the last fifteen, and was named by winner by the Maharaja of Jodhpur due to his young age. Gama was subsequently taken into training by the Maharaja of Datia.
Gama's daily training consisted of grappling with forty of his fellow wrestlers in the court. He used to do five thousand Baithaks (squats) and three thousand Dands (pushups). Gama's daily diet was 2 gallons (7.5 litres) of milk, a pound and a half of crushed almond paste made into a tonic drink along with fruit juice and other ingredients to promote good digestion. This high protein and high energy diet helped him accumulate muscle mass.
Fame came to Gama at the age of 17 when he challenged then-Indian Wrestling Champion, middle-aged Raheem Bakhsh Sultani Wala, another Muslim wrestler from Gujranwala, now in Punjab, Pakistan. At about 7 feet tall, with a very impressive win-loss record, Raheem was expected to easily defeat the 5'7" Gama. Raheem's only drawback was his age as he was much older than Gama, and near the end of his career. The bout continued for hours and eventually ended in a draw. The contest with Raheem was the turning point in Gama's career. After that, he was looked upon as the next contender for the Indian Wrestling Championship. In the first bout Gama remained defensive, but in the second bout, Gama went on the offensive. Despite severe bleeding from his nose and ears, he managed to deal out a great deal of damage to Raheem Bakhsh. By 1910, Gama had defeated all the prominent Indian wrestlers who faced him except the champion, Raheem Bakhsh Sultani Wala. At this time, he focused his attention on the rest of the world. Accompanied by his younger brother Imam Bakhsh, Gama sailed to England to compete with the Western Wrestlers but could not gain instant entry, because of his lower height.
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Wikipedia