Reading B: Pot-Ear Awakened

I chose to read Sister Nivedita’s retelling of the Ramayana.  I picked the story of Pot-ear Awakened.

Image Information: Kumbhakarna statue
Source: Traveling Beats

Pot-ear or Kumbhakarna is Ravana’s brother and a Rakshasas.  He is the best fighter of them all, however, he has one major flaw.  He sleeps for many months at a time, only waking to stuff his face with food (and maybe other pleasures) before going back to sleep.  He’d slept for nine months with Ravana sent for him.

Ravana’s men find him sleeping (of course) in his cave.  Nivedita’s description of him is really detailed and offers a gigantic image.  He is laying like a mountain, and he is “as vast as Hell.”  They have food prepared, mountains of food as tall as Meru.  His breath is so strong that the rakshasas sent to wake can barely stand under it.  When they finally wake up, he immediately eats everything in sight until the Rakshasas are able to tell him about everything that is going on.

The mountain metaphor reappears, camping his marching out to a moving mountain.  His fighting technique is just to eat his enemies.  Rama and Hanuman fight with the monkeys against him.  Hanuman throws mountain-peaks at him.  Pot-ear also flings mountain-tops.  Rama ends up killing Pot-ear with may shafts.


Pot-ear finally falls like a great hill, crashing into the sea, entering the final sleep.  I wonder if that is what he sought all these years....

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