Now a days I am spending too much time on work outs and wondering about the wrestlers of the past who built their strong body without any supplements and came to know about this great legend Rustam-e-Zaman, Gama Pahalwan, Undefeated Wrestler.
The “Great” Gama (22 May 1880 - 1963) also known as “Gama Pahelwan Gurjar” (Urdu: گاما پھلوان) born Ghulam Muhammad Gurjar (Urdu: غلام محمد), in Amritsar, Punjab, India, was a renowned pehlwan(wrestler). He was awarded the Indian version of the World Heavyweight Championship on 15 October 1910. Undefeated his whole life which was substantial, as his career had spanned more than 50 years. He has been billed as the greatest pehlwan of his time. After Independence in 1947, Gama moved to the newly created state of Pakistan.
**Early life
**Ghulam Muhammad whose Punjabi nickname was “Gama”, was born in muslim gurjar family to the renowned wrestler Muhammad Aziz in Punjab. Maharaja Bhawani Singh, the ruler of the princely state of Datia, Madhya Pradesh patronized the young wrestler and his brother Imam Bukhsh. 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 remaining fifteen wrestlers. At that point the Maharaja of Jodhpur announced Gama as the victor due to his remarkable show of enormous stamina and dedication among the many older wrestlers.
Rustam-E-Hind Pehlwan Gama ji vs his Brother Imam Baksh Lahore 1940 exibition match. The Great Gama is the only undefeated wrestler in the world. His career spanned 50 years. And Bruce Lee was his follower.
he was routinely doing five hundred bethaks and five hundred *dands (stretching pushups) daily, and working on pit digging – turning over the earth of the wrestling area with a *pharsa (hoe). He ate a special diet concentrating on milk, almonds, and fruit: he didn’t begin eating meat until a few years later.
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Gama would wrestle every day, of course, but he didn’t compete until he was fifteen. “Very quickly, however, he proved to be virtually unbeatable, and formally became a wrestler to the court of Datiya soon thereafter.” As he grew older his training routine was intensified and his diet upgraded to include meat, butter, clarified butter, and *yakhi, which Alter describes as a “boiled down glutinous extract of bones, joints, and tendons, which is regarded by many Muslim wrestlers as being a source of great strength, and being particularly good for the development of knees, ankles, and other joints.” The amounts eaten by the Indian champions were prodigious, and Barkat Ali gives, with what truth I don’t know, the mature Gama’s daily diet as six chickens or an extract of eleven pounds of mutton mixed with a quarter pound of clarified butter, ten litres of milk, half a litre of clarified butter, 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 expensive high fat, high energy, high everything diet helped to drive Gama’s daily training, which in maturity consisted of grappling with forty of his fellow wrestlers in the court, five thousand bethaks, and three thousand dands.
Lifted 1200 kg stone
**He lifted a 1200 kg stone at the age of 22 at Baroda and the stone is kept for display at Baroda Museum in Sayajibaug and it is two-and-a-half feet in height and has text inscribed on it. The text says that the stone was lifted by Gulaam Mohammed on December 23, 1902. Gama was attending a wrestling competition at Baroda, but could not find a match and he lifted the 1200 kg stone up to his chest and carried a little distance.
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