Discover who the Great Gama was with the Google Doodle

• Image Credit: Internet

• May 22, 2022 | Poonam Nath

Throughout his remarkable five-decade career, the Great Gama remained undefeated.

Digital Desk: On his 144th birthday, Google honored the undefeated Indian wrestler Gama Pehlwan, also known as "The Great Gama," with a Doodle.

The Great Gama, or Gama Pehlwan, was a pehlwani wrestling practitioner born on May 22, 1878, in Amritsar's Jabbowal village (Pehlwani wrestle is a form of South Asian wrestling also known as Kushti).

In the early twentieth century, he went by the name Ghulam Mohammad Baksh Butt and became the champion of India (Rustam-e-Hind) and the world.

Read here about the career of the 'Great Gama':

Throughout his remarkable five-decade career, Gama remained undefeated. He was only ten years old when he defeated every wrestler who stood in his way.

During the Indian subcontinent's freedom struggle, he inspired countless people, including martial artist and actor Bruce Lee.

In 1910, he won the World Heavyweight Championship after defeating international wrestlers in London. After that, he defeated world champions such as Stanislaus Zbyszko, Frank Gotch, and Benjamin Roller.

Gama won several titles during his career, including the Indian versions of the World Heavyweight Championship (1910) and the World Wrestling Championship (1927), for which he was given the nickname "Tiger."

Legends chose his legacy, including Bruce Lee, who was a big fan of Gama's training routine. Gama taught Lee 'The Cat Stretch,' which was a Yoga-based version of pushups. Inspired by the Great Gama, Lee also performed baithaks.

Check out the Diet plan of Gama Pehlwan:

Gama used to do 5,000 squats and 3,000 pushups a day, and his daily diet consisted of 10 liters of milk, six desi chickens, and a pound and a half of crushed almond paste mixed into a tonic drink.

Some unknown things about Ghulam Mohammad Baksh Butt and his family:

Gama lived in Amritsar before the Partition was announced. However, due to rising communal tensions in the city, he relocated to Lahore in early 1947, where he fought numerous bouts.

He also saved many Hindus from bloodthirsty mobs during this bloody episode. Gama Pehlwan spent the last few years in poverty, with little or no help from the Pakistani government.

Following a long illness, he died in 1960 at the age of 82. He had asthma and had a heart condition. Gama is a legendary pre-independence Indian sports champion and a symbol of our fight against colonialism.

Gama's father, Muhammad Aziz Baksh, a Kashmiri Muslim, was a court wrestler who fought under the patronage of Maharaja Bhawani Singh of Datia.

When his father died, he was only six years old. Gama and his younger brother were initially taken in by their maternal grandfather Nun Pehlwan after their father died. Ida Pehlwan, their maternal uncle, took over the responsibility of raising the two young boys after that.

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