Reba Rakshit
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Reba Rakshit (Bengali: রেবা রক্ষিত; 1933–2010) was an Indian bodybuilder and exponent of yoga who was a pupil of Bishnu Charan Ghosh at the College of Physical Culture in Kolkata and specialized in withstanding heavy weights upon her body. She would let fully loaded cars or elephants pass over her body.[1] She was the first Indian woman to lift an elephant upon her chest.[2]
Reba was born in Comilla in a Bengali Hindu family sometime in the early 1930s.[3] From girlhood she had interest in physical culture. After the Partition, she migrated to Kolkata along with her family.[4] In Kolkata, she joined the akhada of Bishnu Charan Ghosh, where she trained alongside Monotosh Roy and Kamal Bhandari. In the early 1950s she was awarded the title Miss Bengal for bodybuilding.[3]