Week 5 Story: Waking Kumbhakarna

Waking Kumbhakarna

Author’s Note: My story is modeled after Pot-ear Awakened in Sister Nivedita’s Ramayana.  I was really intrigued by the opaque coloring of Pot-ear or Kumbhakarna’s character.  I use Pot-ear as the name others call him, while he prefers Kumbhakarna.  He doesn’t appear to have much motivation for anything besides sleeping and eating.  Sister Nivedita depicts Pot-ear in a way that molds him into a hunting dog.  He only wakes to do Ravana’s bidding and in her version, he has no protests or doubts about the success of warring with Rama.  There is a budding characterization of him, but it is mainly brutish and beastly.  I am more interested in the psychology of Pot-ear as a character with emotion, which is why I wrote this story.

Kumbhakarna had been asleep nine months as if pretending to be a babe in a mortal woman’s womb, and he was reluctant to wake.  Ravana knew, even as he impatiently sent many rakshasas to the cave where his brother dwelled, that the awakening of Kumbhakarna would be a difficult task.  He understood not the lamentations that poured down his brother’s marbled cheeks, the whining wails that made the very wind pause to marvel at such grief-stricken sound, or the desolation that Kumbhakarna assured him was very much inconsolable.  Ravana had little patience for this dramatics for he had a war against Gods and Men to win.

The rakshasas marched solemnly to the rocky home of their king’s brother, who they called Pot-ear.  Perhaps it was because his ears seemed like giant pots hanging off the sides of his head, or perhaps it was simply a name which came forth without any reason at all.  It did not matter for it was Kumbhakarna’s least favorite thing to be called.

They prepared a great feast for the giant for they knew that once he woke, he would be extremely ravenous.  Deer were slaughtered, along with other meaty creatures, and tossed in great piles until it was a stacked mountain.  It took a great deal of preparation and many of the rakshasas were tired after so much effort.  And that wasn’t even the most difficult part of their task!  No, for now, they had to wake a slumbering Kumbhakarna who had very little desire to be awake.

First, the rakshasas tried trumpets and conches, pounding on drums with their bare fists.  Kumbhakarna only exhaled a gust of breath, sending a few brave enough to stand so close tumbling to their feet.  They then tried to beat him awake, but their strength was no match for the snoozing Kumbhakarna.  Eventually, after pouring hot water on his bare skin and driving elephants against his ribs, the great brother of Ravana awoke.

His stomach immediately reminded him of the pangs of hunger and Kumbhakarna lurched towards the feast.  The rakshasas watched, trembling in their very bones, as he swallowed deer whole.  It was a revolting affair to watch as Kumbhakarna slurped down the meats and rice.  Once he finished, it was silent for mere moments, before Kumbhakarna let out a satisfied burp and began to lay back down.  The rakshasas quickly intervened, yelling and jumping as they tried to keep him awake.  Kumbhakarna grumbled, displeased.

“Whyyyyy?  Why wake me?” Kumbhakarna groaned.  With a greasy finger, he flicked one impertinent rakshasa off his cheek.  He peeked between his lashes to watch the pest fly, soaring through the air and slamming into a tree.  The rakshasa perched by his ear shifted warily.  Kumbhakarna imagined he was preparing to bolt, eyes wide and knees knocking.  Of course, Kumbhakarna knew there was only one who would send an army of rakshasas to his cave, only one who would dare interrupt his mourning over the pathetic squall of existence.

He knew he would do whatever Ravana asked, and perhaps even with vigor if it should prove the end of his miserable status as awake.

Image Source: Info Arena

P.S. Here is a youtube video of the rakshasas waking Kumbhakarna.