East Bengal’s famous ‘Pancha Pandavas’ were a set of five lethal strikers who played for the club between 1949 and 1953. They were arguably one of the most lethal strike forces in the history of the club as well as Indian football.
Inspired from the Hindu epic text of Mahabharata, this name was given to the five star forwards of the Red and Golds - Appa Rao, PB Saleh, P Venkatesh, Ahmed Khan and KP Dhanraj - all of whom hailed from Southern India.
Appa Rao came from Madras (now Chennai) and was the first among the ‘Pancha Pandavas’ to join the club in 1941.