Great Gama
Gama in c. 1916
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| Birth name | Ghulam Mohammad Baksh |
|---|---|
| Born |
22 May 1878 Amritsar, Punjab, British 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 British 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. His granddaughter Kalsoom Nawaz Sharif is a three-time First Lady of Pakistan.
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.
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Wikipedia