Google Doodle is celebrating the 144th birthday of great Indian wrestler Ghulam Muhammad Bakhsh Butt, popularly known as Gama Pehlwan or The Great Gama, to remember and honour his accomplishments. Today’s Doodle has been created by guest artist Vrinda Zaveri.
Gama Pehlwan was born on this day in 1878 in Amritsar. He fought a total of 5000 bouts in his entire carrier and was considered the most successful wrestler of the last century. Staying undefeated for 22 years earned Gama Pehlwan the title of “undefeated champion” as well.
According to the description of today’s Doodle, Gama’s workout routine included 500 lunges and 500 pushups at only 10 years old. In 1888, he competed in a lunge contest with over 400 wrestlers from around the country and won. His success at the competition gained him fame throughout the royal states of India. It wasn’t until he turned 15 that he picked up wrestling.
“By 1910, people were reading Indian newspapers with headlines praising Gama as a national hero and world champion,” the Google Doodle blog said.
After the division of the sub-continent, Gama migrated to Pakistan and spent the rest of his days until his death in 1960 in Lahore. Continuing his legacy, Gama Pehlwan’s nephew Bholo Pehlwan held the tile of national wrestling champion of Pakistan for 20 years.