Google celebrates Gama Pehlwan, India’s greatest wrestler, with a birth anniversary doodle

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10:15 a.m. Eastern Time

  • ESPN staff

Sunday’s Google doodle showed a muscular gentleman with a mustache and a mace on his broad shoulders. It was a tribute to one of India’s greatest wrestlers, Ghulam Mohammad Baksh Butt, popularly known as Gama Pehlwan or ‘The Great Gama’, on his 144th birth anniversary.

Gama Pehlwan was the definition of a strong man: he did not lose a single fight in 50 years, he did many thousands of squats and push-ups every day and legend has it that he once fought an entire mob. He was so threatening that the crowd fled when they saw who they were up against.

Here are 10 things to know about the iconic Pehlwan Gama:

Disclaimer: This list is obtained from various sources, as officially documented information about Gama Pehlwan is rare.

one. He was 5 feet seven inches tall…considerably short for a pehelwan but his strength was unparalleled. He supposedly did 5,000 squats and 3,000 push-ups every day.

two. His diet included 10 liters of milk, six chickens and more than a pound of crushed almond paste. There you have it, the secret of his superhuman strength.

3. He remained undefeated throughout his career, which spanned more than five decades. It is believed that none of his fights lasted more than a few minutes, not even the then world champion could pose a threat. More on that later…

Four. The strong man rose to fame while still a teenager. He was hailed as a legend when he faced the Rustam-e-Hind (Indian champion) Raheem Baksh Sultaniwala. Gama was not seen as a match for Sultaniwala, who was over two meters tall. Gama managed to hold him for a draw and that was the beginning of his fascinating career.

5. Gama Pehelawan lifted a stone weighing 1,200 kg in 1902 when he was 20 years old. The stone is now on display at the Baroda museum and it took 25 people and a machine to move it.

6. It had little or no competition in India. The fighters who faced him were quickly crushed and he flew abroad in search of true competition. He would go up against the likes of Stanislaus Zbyszko, Frank Gotch and Benjamin Roller… all of whom he defeated without breaking a sweat. They tried repeatedly, with Zbyszko asking for a rematch, but the result did not change. The result was inevitable: Gama always won.

7. Such was his dominance that he eventually struggled to find opponents willing to fight him. He then came up with a novel idea where he lured opponents in by telling them that he would give them the full prize and return to India if they could beat him. He eventually returned to India…still undefeated.

8. He was so notoriously popular that the Prince of Wales insisted on meeting him when he arrived in India in 1922. He would then present him with a silver mace. Such was Gama’s popularity that even Bruce Lee was inspired by him.

9. He closed the curtain on his career in 1952 at the age of 74. He was forced to hang up the gloves only because he wasn’t getting any younger, not because he was any weaker. He remained unbeaten in over 5,000 staggering matches.

10 Such was his legacy that a donut-shaped exercise disc called a Hasli weighing 100kg, which he used while doing squats and push-ups, is on display at the National Institute of Sports (NIS) Museum in Patiala.




Reference-www.espn.com

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