Reba Rakshit

Reba Rakshit (1933 to 2010) was an Indian bodybuilder and exponent of yoga, known for withstanding enormous weights on her body. Born into a Bengali Hindu family in Comilla in the early 1930s, she migrated to Kolkata after the Partition and joined the akhada of Bishnu Charan Ghosh at the College of Physical Culture, where she trained alongside Monotosh Roy and Kamal Bhandari. In the early 1950s she was awarded the title Miss Bengal for bodybuilding. She then performed in circuses, including Kamala Circus, International Circus and Gemini Circus, letting fully loaded cars and elephants pass over her body, and she was the first Indian woman to lift an elephant upon her chest, an act she kept up until the mid 1960s. She was also a good shooter. Later she worked as a physical trainer and in social work, and she received the Padmashri and the title Devi Chaudhurani from the Nawab of Hyderabad.