The Great Gama

Ghulam Muhammad
The "Great" Gama Pahalwan
Born	22 May 1878 Gujranwala, Punjab, British India
Died	23 May 1960(1960-05-23) (aged 82) Lahore, Pakistan
Professional wrestling career
Ring name(s)	Gama Pahalwan

The "Great" Gama (22 May 1878 - 1960)^[1][2] also known as "Gama Pahalwan" (Urdu: گاما پھلوان‎) is the stage-name of Ghulam Muhammad (Urdu: غلام محمد‎). Born in Gujranwala, Punjab, British India . He was awarded the Indian version of the World Heavyweight Championship on 15 October 1910. Undefeated in a career spanning more than 50 years, he is considered one of the greatest wrestlers of all time. After Independence in 1947, Gama moved to the newly created state of Pakistan.^[3]

Early life

He was of Punjabi Kashmiri descent and was born in the city of Gujranwala which is in present day Pakistani Punjab. He hails from a prominent wrestling family in Punjab which is known to produce world-class wrestlers in Pakistan. He is also the grandfather of Pakistani First Lady Kulsoom Nawaz. Gama had two wives: one in Pakistan and the other in Baroda, Gujarat, India.

Gama was first noticed at the age of ten when he entered a strongman competition held in Jodhpur, which included many grueling exercises such as squats. The contest was attended by more than four hundred wrestlers and young Gama was among the last fifteen. At that point the Maharaja of Jodhpur announced Gama as the victor due to his remarkable show of enormous stamina and dedication.

Career

Training and diet

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 ten liters 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.

First encounter with Raheem Bakhsh Sultani Wala

Fame came to Gama at the age of 17 when he challenged then-Indian Wrestling Champion, middle-aged Raheem Bakhsh Sultani Wala, a 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.^[4]

In London, Gama issued a challenge that he could throw any three wrestlers in thirty minutes of any weight class. This announcement however was seen as a bluff by the wrestlers and their wrestling promoter R. B. Benjamin.^[5] For a long time no one came forward to accept the challenge. In order to break the ice, Gama presented another challenge to specific heavy weight wrestlers. He challenged Stanislaus Zbyszko and Frank Gotch, either he would beat them or pay them the prize money and go home. The first professional wrestler to take his challenge was the American Benjamin Roller. In the bout, Gama pinned Roller in 1 minute 40 seconds the first time, and in 9 minutes 10 seconds the other. Second day, he defeated 12 wrestlers and thus gained entry to official tournament.^[4]

He was pitted against world champion Stanislaus Zbyszko^[4] and the date of bout was set as 10 September 1910. The match was contested over prize money and the John Bull Belt. Within a minute, Zbyszko was taken down and remained in that position for the remaining 2 hours and 35 minutes of the match. There were a few brief moments when Zbyszko would get up, but he just ended back down in his previous position. Crafting a defensive strategy of hugging the mat in order to nullify Gama’s greatest strengths, Zbyszko wrestled the Indian legend to a draw after nearly three hours of grappling, though Zbyszko’s lack of tenacity angered many of the fans in attendance. The two men were set to face each other again but zybszko didn't show up and Gama was announced victor.

At forty-eight years old he was now known as the "Great wrestler" of South Asia..^[5]

Fight with Balram Heeraman Singh Yadav

After defeating Zbyszko, Gama beat Jesse Petersen in February 1929. The bout lasted only one and a half minutes. This was the last bout that Gama fought during his career. In the 1940s he was invited by the Nizam of Hyderabad and defeated all his fighters. The Nizam then sent him to face the wrestler Balram Heeraman Singh Yadav (THE LION FROM HYDERABAD), who was never defeated by any wrestler in his career. The fight was very long. Gama was unable to defeat Heeraman and finally the fight ended in a draw. Gama's only drawback was his age as he was much older than Heeraman. After the independence and partitioning of India in 1947, Gama moved to Pakistan. Although Gama did not retire until 1952, he failed to find any other opponents. After his retirement he trained his nephew Bholu Pahalwan, who held the Pakistani wrestling championship for almost 20 years.

Death

The Great Gama died in Lahore, Pakistan on 23 May 1960 after a period of illness. He was given land by the government but he still struggled to pay for treatment for his heart and asthma. G. D. Birla, an industrialist and wrestling fan, donated ₹2,000 and a monthly pension of ₹300, and the Government of Pakistan increased the pension to Gama and supported his medical expenses until his death.^[5]

Today, a doughnut-shaped exercise disc weighing 95 kg, used by him for squats, is housed at the National Institute of Sports (NIS) Museum at Patiala^[6]

Influences

Salman Khan was an avid follower of Gama's training routine. Lee read articles about Gama and how he employed his exercises to build his legendary strength for wrestling, and Lee quickly incorporated them into his own routine. Some of the training routines he got was: "The Cat Stretch or Hindu Push-ups" - a version of Push up based on Yoga, "The Squat" - which is called "Baithak" in India, its simply known as "deep-knee bend".^[7]

Championships and accomplishments

• Professional Wrestling Hall of Fame
  • Class of 2015^[8]

See also

• Bholu Pahalwan
• Hanif Pehalwan
• Dara Singh
• Akram Pehlwan
• Aslam Pahalwan
• Premchand Dogra
• Nathmal Pahalwan
• Gobar Goho

References

1. ↑ A Tribute To The Great Gama
2. ↑ Great Gama
3. ↑ "The culture and crisis of kushti". The Hindu. 31 October 2013. Retrieved 31 October 2013. 
4. 1 2 3 Alter, Joseph S. (1992). The wrestler's body identity and ideology in North India. Berkeley: University of California Press. p. 76. ISBN 9780520912175. 
5. 1 2 3 Banerjee, Saranath (10 March 2012). "Gamanamah: The story of a strongman". The Times of India - timescrest. Retrieved 13 October 2013. 
6. ↑ A rare museum The Tribune, November 24, 2001.
7. ↑ Little, John, Bruce Lee - The Art Of Expressing The Human Body (Tuttle Publishing, 1998), p. 58
8. ↑ Oliver, Greg (2014-11-26). "Professional Wrestling Hall of Fame Class of 2015 announced". Slam! Sports. Canadian Online Explorer. Retrieved 2014-11-28. 

External links

• The Lion of the Punjab – Gama in England, 1910 By Graham Noble
• Subaltern Bodies and Nationalist Physiques: Gama the Great and the Heroics of Indian Wrestling by Joseph Alter, Department of Anthropology at the University of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA