The Great Gama: Key facts about Indian wrestler who inspired Bruce lee

Gama Pehelwan was a Kashmiri Muslim, born in Jabbowal village of Amritsar district in Punjab on May 22, 1878, and was regarded to be one of the greatest wrestlers ever lived.

Gama Pehlwan has been a household name in India since the early 20th century and has been used when a person's strength is being remarked.

According to the Google Doodle blog, when Gama was 10 yrs old, he followed a workout routine that consisted of 500 lunges and 500 pushups every day and even sometimes more exercise within 30 to 45 minutes each by wearing a doughnut-shaped wrestling apparatus called a hasli of 1 quintal (approx. 100 kilos).

Gama, who picked up wrestling at the age of 15, came to the limelight in 1888, when he entered a strongman competition held in Jodhpur, which included many grueling exercises such as squats. The contest was attended by 400 wrestlers and Gama was among the last fifteen and was named the winner by the Maharaja of Jodhpur due to his young age. His success gained him fame throughout the royal states of India and was subsequently taken into training by the Maharaja of Datia.

Gama was also considered a national hero as he was responsible for saving the lives of many Hindus during the partition of India in 1947.

Gama earned many awards during his career, notably the Indian versions of the World Heavyweight Championship (1910) and the World Wrestling Championship (1927) where he was bestowed with the title of “Tiger” after the tournament.

He boasts an undefeated career that spans more than 52 years and has also lifted a boulder that weighed over 1,200kg. The boulder is also currently kept on display at Baroda Museum in Sayajibaug.

During Gama's visit to India, the Prince of Wales also honoured Gama with a Silver Mace.

Bruce Lee was an avid follower of Gama's training routine, who read articles about Gama on how he employed his exercises to build his legendary strength for wrestling. He quickly incorporated them into his own routine. His training techniques of "the cat stretch", "the squat" (known as "baithak", and "deep-knee bend" are from Gama.

Gama once began campaigning for things like free rail travel for poor Indians and challenged the British govt of India that he would stop a moving train with his bare hands if they'd make rail travel free on a 11 km stretch but, the govt refused.

Today, a 100 kg doughnut-shaped exercise disc called Hasli, which Gama used for squats and pushups, is housed at the National Institute of Sports (NIS) Museum in Patiala.