Ambika Charan Goho

Background

Ambika Charan was born to Abhay Charan Goho in 1843 in Hogolkuria in Kolkata.

Career

Ambika Charan came from a family of wrestlers. The locality is near the Masjidbari Street near Hatibagan. Ambika Charan suffered a serious injury at the age of eight or nine.

At the advice of the doctor he began to continue his studies at home.

He also continued his physical exercises and took lessons in horse riding at home. He was trained in the art of wrestling by Kalicharan Chaubey of Mathura.

Ambika then travelled throughout India learning different wrestling and weight lifting tricks. He engaged in wrestling bouts with the contemporary Indian wrestlers and became victorious in many of them.

He came to be known as Ambu babu or Raja babu.

His akhada became a pilgrimage to the budding wrestlers of India. Ambika Charan became a trainer of the art and the budding wrestlers of Bengal used to train under him. Swami Vivekananda in his early years, learned wrestling in Ambu babu"s akhada.

Some of his famous students are listed below.

Khetra Charan Goho or Khetu babu

Jatindra Charan Goho or Gobar Goho

Swami Vivekananda

Swami Brahmananda

Jatindranath Mukherjee or Bagha Jatin

Phanindra Krishna Gupta

Hundreds of akhadas began to proliferate in the nooks and crannies of Bengal, some of which later became the breeding ground of revolutionary nationalist activities.

Achievements

• His son, Khetra Charan Goho, (popularly known as Khetu babu) also became an accomplished wrestler. Khetu babu"s nephew, Jatindra Charan Goho, went on to become an accomplished wrestler who became the first Asian to win the World Light Heavyweight Championship in the United States in 1921.