Wrestling is one of the oldest sports in the world, if not the oldest. It was practised in Ancient Egypt 2000 years before the first Olympic Games, which took place in 1896 in Athens.
In February 2013, wrestling was about to be excluded from the Olympic Games due to a growing cost. The International Olympic Committee (IOC) voted to remove wrestling from the 2020 Summer Olympics. But on 8 September 2013, the IOC announced that wrestling would return to the Summer Olympics in 2020.
Wrestling in India has a remarkable past. The new generation is perhaps unaware of some great men. But there is one, who’s worth writing about: Gama Pahalwan, a forgotten hero of wrestling.
The Great Gama, a pillar of wrestling
The Great Gama, whose real name was Ghulam Muhammed was born in Amritsar, Punjab, British India in 1880. He was a Pakistani He is also known as “Gama Pahalwan”, “Lion of Punjab”, and “Rustam-e-Zamana”. He is considered as the greatest wrestler of all time.
His father was a top wrestler and Gama is said to have started training at age five. When Gama was eight, his father died, but training continued under the direction of his grandfather and then his uncle Ida Pahalwan.
Gama first became known at the age of 10 when he took part in a contest. This was not a wrestling contest, but an endurance competition of baithak (free squats), the fundamental exercise of Indian wrestling.
At age 20, he became the world heavyweight champion in 1910. He remained undefeated his whole life. He won over 5000 fights with no loss. His daily diet included 10 litres of milk, one and a half pounds of almond paste, meat, eggs, and fruits. Gama weighed 200 pounds.
During his life, Gama defeated some of the most respected wrestlers in the world such as Benjamin Roller of the United States, Maurice Deriaz of France, Johann Lemm (the European Champion) of Switzerland and Jesse Peterson from Sweden.
Joseph S. Alter, professor of anthropology at the University of Pittsburgh and the author of The Wrestler’s Body: Identity and Ideology in North India, says Gama embodied strength and self-determination in the years when India was struggling for independence.
Gama’s last major bout was at the age of 49 in 1929 when he beat Jesse Petersen in one and a half minutes. But he continued to wrestle into the 1940s.
After 1947 Gama moved to Pakistan where he was totally ignored by them because he won all the fame for India. He died in 1960.
Isometric training technique
“Gama attributed much of this incredible power to his use of isometric training. One of his most famous workouts involved tying a rope or belt around a tree and then trying with all his might to pull the tree down. Not only did this help him to develop his incredible strength, but it is also just about the coolest training technique you’ve likely ever heard of” explains Adam Sinicki, a bodybuilder and sport writer.
Bruce Lee, a follower of the Great Gama
Bruce Lee was an eager follower of Gama’s training routine. Lee set up a new style of fighting, the Jet Kune Do. He incorporated several techniques of training from different champions such as Muhammad Ali, for his footwork. Few people know that Bruce Lee had also incorporated “exercices from the Great Gama and followed his training methods like the “dand” and the “baithak”.
The cat stretch or “dand”
The cat stretch was one of two exercises popularised by Gama. Bruce Lee read two articles about Gama and how he employed these exercises to build his legendary strength for wrestling, and Lee quickly incorporated them into his own routine. The cat stretch is also known as a dand, and is really a push up.
The squat or “baithak”
The free-hand or body-weight squat is the second exercise that Lee picked up from the training method of the Indian wrestler Gama. In India it is called the baithak and is simply the deep knee bend.
In the book “The art of expressing human body” by John Little, we can read: ”The dand and baithak built up Gama’s chest to 56 inches in circumference, his arms to 17 inches, and his thighs to 30 inches. The secret lies in the way Gama performed these two movements. According to an article that Bruce Lee saved about Gama’s training methods, boys of 12, 13 and 15 in India will do 1000 baithaks and 500 dand’s every day, while professional wrestlers such as Gama would get up at 3:00 AM to do baithaks. Gama would perform 4000 repetitions of the baithak in the morning, have breakfast, perform his dands – 2000 of them in the afternoon- take a walk or run 4 miles, and finish his day by wrestling”.
The Great Gama in popular culture
The Great Gama appears as a character in the video game Shadows Hearts: Covenant and in the Japanes comic book “Tiger Mask”. Darun Mister, a character appearing in the Street Fighter EX videogame series, was also inspired by Gama.
Actor John Abraham is producing the film under his production house JA Entertainment. John, will play the role of Gama in the film. Actor-director Parmeet Sethi will direct the film.
Now let us not forget him.
PD
The great Gama
