INDIA, September 16, 2024 (The Intel Drop): Nearly a century ago, in an era before steroids, there was an Indian who was both a yoga master and an accomplished bodybuilder. Named Bishnu Charan Ghosh, he was the younger brother of Paramahansa Yogananda (originally Mukunda Lal Ghosh), famously the author of perennial spiritual best-seller, Autobiography of a Yogi. Ghosh has seen a revival, most recently during the summer of 2024, when fitness coach and influencer Jeff Cavaliere shared several black and white images on Instagram demonstrating the spectacular bodies of Ghosh and his students, citing them as examples of what pre-steroid bodybuilders achieved. The images were from the 1930s, but what Cavaliere did not mention and was perhaps unaware of was that some were from an era when Indians in a variety of fields were influencing the modern world in pre-social-media ways.

The images (other than one of Eugen Sandow) were of Ghosh, his disciple Buddha Bose, and Ghosh’s students. They were among the earliest exponents of yoga who took their knowledge across the seas and were received with significant interest in Europe, America, Japan, and elsewhere. They demonstrated their skills at important gatherings in the US at places such as Columbia University, while Japan even honored Ghosh with a tribute postage stamp in 2017. While names such as BKS Iyengar (1918-2014) and Bikram Choudhury (founder of Bikram Yoga) are now integral to the global yoga story, the history of Ghosh, Buddha Bose and the Calcutta legacy was unfortunately less spoken about for a long time. Some of the images Cavaliere used are from Ghosh’s first book, Muscle Control & Barbell Exercise, published in 1930 with Keshub Chandra Sen Gupta. Though this history was mostly forgotten, images like those of Ghosh and his students continue to feed people’s curiosity.

Much more at source including impressive photos.
https://www.theinteldrop.org/2024/09/16/the-yogic-bodybuilder-rediscovering-a-kolkata-guru-whose-physical-feats-dazzled-in-a-pre-steroid-era/

Originally published in RT
https://www.rt.com/india/603965-pumping-iron-flexing-yoga-modern

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