Ramayana – Kumbhakarna – {Ep.237} – Stories From India – Podcast

Today’s episode is a story from the Ramayana featuring Ravana’s little brother, Kumbhakarna, who is anything but little. We’ll see him enter the battlefield against the Vanar army

Welcome to “Stories From India”. This is a podcast that will take you on a journey through the rich mythology, folklore and history of the Indian subcontinent. I am Narada Muni, the celestial storyteller and the original “time lord”. With my ability to travel through space and time, I can bring you fascinating stories from the past, the present, and the future. From the epic tales of the Mahabharata and Ramayana to the folktales of the Panchatantra to stories of Akbar-Birbal and Tenali Raman, I have a story for every occasion.

The purpose of the stories is neither to pass judgment nor to indoctrinate. My goal is only to share these stories with people who may not have heard them before and to make them more entertaining for those who have.

Today’s Story

First of all, I wish you all a very happy and prosperous new year! Of course, being a time traveler, I know what happens this year. But it doesn’t matter, because I can’t reveal anything.

Anyway, let’s jump into today’s story. We’re continuing the Ramayana.

The Ramayana is one of the two major epics in Indian mythology. The other is the Mahabharata which we have also covered on this show. 

The Ramayana begins in Ayodhya with Ram as its Crown Prince. He would have gone on to be King, but his stepmother Kaikeyi forced him into exile for 14 years. Ram went, but not alone. His wife Sita, and brother Laxman went along too.

Ram was an avatar of Vishnu, the preserver of the Universe. Vishnu creates a balance between Brahma the Creator of the Universe, and Shiva, its Destroyer. Together they are the Holy Trinity of Indian mythology. Shameless plug here but Brahma is my dad. And I’m president for life of the Vishnu fan club, and I regularly meet Shiva on Mt Kailash. So you know you’re getting this from an authentic source.

Anyway, back to Ram, Laxman and Sita. They survived one challenge after another in the wild. Demons and demonesses were constantly trying to either eat the trio, or to kidnap and enslave them. Ram and Laxman managed to fight off most such challenges.

And then events took a much darker turn when Ravana abducted Sita! Ravana was the ruler of Lanka, and the mega villain in this epic. He was full of superpowers which meant defeating him was virtually impossible. Imagine Lord Voldemort with 10 heads, so 10 times as evil, and without any horcrux-es and without any weaknesses.

Sita had been kidnapped without so much as a ransom note about a drop off point in an abandoned fort or some such sinister location. Neither the police existed, nor the CBI, nor the Gumshuda Talash Kendra. So Ram and Laxman got help from the next best option – the Vanars. These Vanars were a kingdom of monkeys led by their King Sugriva. Most of the actual help came from Hanuman, who was Sugriva’s adviser and right hand Vanar. Hanuman found Sita in Lanka, delivered Ram’s words of support, and delivered Sita’s return words of support back to Rama. Burning down Lanka in the process, and getting the inside scoop on Lankan defenses were simply bonuses.

Ram, Laxman, and all the Vanars crossed the ocean to get to Lanka. That part was especially hard, because first they had to build a bridge across the ocean which any civil engineer will tell you is hard enough now, and was much harder still in Ancient India given most construction equipment hadn’t even been invented yet. 

Ram was joined by Vibhishana, one of Ravana’s brothers, who switched sides.

The Vanars and the Lankans dove into battle. Ravana’s son, Indrajit, had achieved what he thought was victory when he very badly hurt both Ram and Laxman. Luckily for them, Garuda, the King of birds and Vishnu’s mount saved them.

The battle started to go against the Lankans after that. Ravana entered battle himself and made quite a splash, but Ram kinda embarrassed him on the battlefield.

We’ll continue the story there.

Ravana was furious. Things were bad. Really bad. His army wasn’t just decimated. Decimation meant only a tenth of the soldiers were lost. But Ravana had lost many more than that. He had lost a bunch of generals. He had tried to disrupt the proceedings by entering the battle himself. But Rama, and even Hanuman had absolutely humiliated him, and rubbed his noses in the dirt. All ten of them. And that wasn’t the worst of it. The thing that had Ravana climbing up the walls was the fact that the Lanka Times had written a hit piece criticizing his leadership. The journalist  asked, “How many more lives are you going to lose for the sake of one measly hostage?”

It was obvious to Ravana that he needed something big that could turn the situation around completely in his favor. “We need something that can turn the situation around completely in my favor,” he began, addressing his secretary. “We need something massive, something big, something that could take the enemy by surprise, crush their spirits, and their bodies at the same time. I want warriors the size of mountains, and instead I’m stuck with a minion army that couldn’t scare a kitten.”

The secretary was a timid Asura – the type who might be scared of a kitten. Which meant he was quite afraid to express his opinion. Witnessing his boss crumple his predecessor into a ball had that effect on him. Now, the question that Ravana had raised had an obvious, and correct answer. Kumbhakarna. He was Ravana’s brother. I guess it ran in the family that he had his own superpowers too.

Kumbhakarna literally means pot-eared. I couldn’t tell you if his ears were shaped like a pot or not. But what I could tell you is that the size of those ears were certainly larger than a pot of the extra large variety. And it wasn’t just his ears that were outsized. Kumbhakarna was several stories tall, and had biceps the size of elephants. Imagine Ant man in his largest size, and then double that. Hang on. Maybe triple that.

Ravana was still trying to be creative. “What if we release the Kraken? Admittedly, we’d first have to find a Kraken, train it, and then take the Vanars there. They might not want to go. Never mind. What if I build a massive particle collider larger than the LHC, and then I create a mini black hole? That will swallow all the vanars”

The secretary cleared his throat and said Ravana could deploy his brother in battle.

Ravana shook his head. “No, Vibhishana is already fighting, but on Ram’s side”

“Not that brother, your majesty”

“Khar? Dushan? Keep up, man. They died several episodes ago”

Then Ravana realized he meant the other brother. “Ahiravana? I can send word to him. He’s not large, but he has more than one trick up his sleeve”

“Your majesty, I meant Kumbhakarna.”

Ravana was shocked for a second. “Didn’t he already fall? I distinctly remember you saying he fell.”

“Your highness, he fell….asleep.”

“Again?” Ravana was confused. “He was awake in Episode 190.”

“He’s only been taking a power nap this time, your majesty.” The secretary further added that Kumbhakarna was a bit like a computer. Unless someone was interacting with him, he’d doze off within 10 mins of inactivity.

“He had a light snack, nothing much, just a few hundred dosas, a few tubs of sambar and chutney, some grain silos full of rice”

“Ah so is that why the farmers were complaining about a food shortage back then? I might have known. But it doesn’t matter. Kumbhakarna is there, he’s exactly what we need to crush the enemy!”  

Indeed, this was good news for Ravana. And the impromptu Bhangra he launched into was quite justified here. Remember the superpowers that I said Kumbhakarna had? It was nearly impossible for him to be defeated. And it could have been a lot worse.

There was just one teeny tiny problem. Waking up Kumbhakarna was not easy. They started with alarm clocks, they tried to shake him awake, they played trumpets and banged drums. But Kumbhakarna continued to sleep. You could say Kumbhakarna slept like a log, except logs don’t snore as loud. 

But it wasn’t Kumbhakarna’s fault. He hadn’t intended to be such a heavy sleeper. You see, the story goes that once, in the days of normal sleep patterns, Kumbhakarna had performed a yagna, which is an elaborate ritual to call on a deity. If you’ve heard previous episodes you’ll know that Brahma the creator of the Universe is the easiest of the Holy Trinity to please. He appeared and was ready to grant Kumbhakarna whatever he wanted, other than immortality.

Indra, the chief of the Devs, and ruler of Swarg or Heaven, had some advance warning that Kumbhakarna was going to ask for Indra’s throne and the annihilation of the Devs. Maybe Kumbhakarna shouldn’t have announced his intentions all over the Ancient Indian version of social media.

Indra was obviously worried. He got help from Saraswati, the Goddess of Knowledge, Music, Art and Learning. Saraswati secretly twisted the words that came from Kumbhakarna’s mouth. So instead of asking for Indrasana, and Nirdevatvam, he asked for Nidrasana and Nidravatvam.

Indrasana is the throne of Indra, and Nidrasana is a bed for sleeping. Similarly, Nirdevatvam means the absence of any devs, and Nidravatvam means sleep. Brahma granted the spoken wish instantly.

With these long complicated Sanskrit words, maybe Kumbhakarna would have gotten them wrong even if Saraswati hadn’t intervened.

Ravana cried foul and demanded a third umpire review. Kumbhakarna couldn’t appeal because he was already asleep. Under appeal, Brahma relented, and changed Kumbhakarna’s sleeping pattern to just six months each year. But as we have seen, Kumbhakarna did grab a power nap here and there.

Finally, and reluctantly, Ravana gave the order to bring on the elephants. These were particularly wild elephants. Reluctantly because the last time they had to do this, some of the elephants had developed trauma. So much so, that Ravana had to allocate a chunk of the government budget towards an elephant therapist. But it worked. Being trampled by wild elephants was the equivalent of getting a massage for Kumbhakarna.

He yawned, and woke up slowly and asked what year it was.

When he was told, he expressed considerable surprise that it had only been a few days since he went to bed. “I didn’t catch anywhere close to 40 winks. Maybe a wink and a half at best.”

Ravana said he was frightfully sorry for disturbing Kumbhakarna’s beauty sleep, but he needed the Giant’s help here.

Kumbhakarna listened to all the latest news, to catch up. He then turned to Ravana and said, he could see why Ravana was asking him to enter battle, but he didn’t want to make a rash decision. Could he sleep on it?

“Of course not! We’re not going to last one month, let alone six”

“Fine, I’ll do it,” the Giant replied. “But brother, haven’t you wondered about being on the wrong side here? You abducted that woman, her husband is completely justified in coming here to attack us. You’re still rejecting all calls to turn her over. How do you sleep at night?”

“I sleep like a baby,” Ravana said.

“Babies don’t necessarily sleep the best, despite how the saying goes. But I get your point. I may not agree with you, but I will fight for you. By the end of day, the war will be over. I will have crushed the enemy”

Big words, Ravana thought. But if anyone could deliver it was Kumbhakarna.

A few minutes later, Kumbhakarna was in battle armor, a massive helmet that could have completely covered a moderately sized hill. He carried a club, the size of a redwood tree. His belt said seven hundred with one blow, and you’ll soon see why. In fact, his entire giant outfit was a hit except his slippers, which were a massive flop.

At the entrance to the battlefield he smelled and air and said

“Fee fi fo fun, 

I smell the blood of a billion. 

Vanars and Bears, and Human,

Fear not Lankans for the battle is almost won”

He launched into battle with a splash. One sweep of his club hurt hundreds of Vanars. This was turning out to be a Hulk vs Puny humans kind of a fight here. But that’s only because so far he was dealing with the ordinary Vanars. That changed quickly when Sugriva decided to take on this giant. It was a david and goliath kind of match up. But what Sugriva lacked in size he made  up in agility. Only temporarily though, Kumbhakarna snatched up the Vanar King and raised him towards his mouth. Well, if Kumbhakarna had followed through his action of eating up Sugriva, the Vanars would have been forced to elect a new King, which is never a great idea in the middle of a war. But that didn’t happen.

Sugriva slipped out of Kumbhakarna’s fist and jumped onto his face. With his sharp teeth and nails, he tore off Kumbhakarna’s ears and nose. Sort of like what Lakshman had done to Shoorpanakha, except Sugriva didn’t use a sword.

Kumbhakarna was enraged and stomped on the ground, taking out a few hundred more Vanars. He grabbed Sugriva again and flung him with all his might towards the ground. A move that would have sent the victim deep underground, if it had been any ordinary human or Vanar. But Sugriva, the son of the Sun was not ordinary. He bounced. Like a ball. He went off to find Rama.

Lakshman was the next one to engage Kumbhakarna in combat. He fired a volley of arrows. Unfortunately every single one of them only hit Kumbhakarna’s armor. “It’s a nice coat, my armor was due in the paint shop for a touch up anyway. This will make it look better”

But Laxman wasn’t interested in discussing battlefield armor fashion trends. He fired more arrows. Without further luck.

“Look Lakshman, I’d love to keep fighting you, but I must find Rama. You’re just here to stall. If I defeat Rama, the battle is over. So I’m going to go look for him, okay?”

Kumbhakarna was going to march away. But before he got two steps, Rama arrived. As if by way of introduction, he fired an arrow that hit an exact gap between two plates of Kumbhakarna’s armor. “Ouch!” Kumbhakarna screamed.

Angrily, he hurled his massive redwood size club towards Rama. Calmly but quickly, the Prince of Ayodhya fired seven arrows that reduced the club to smithereens.

Kumbhakarna was very cross. “I had that club imported all the way from California, you know! They don’t make trees that big here”

“Sorry,” Rama replied. “If it’s any consolation soon you won’t be needing a club. Or anything else for that matter.”

The Giant advanced on Rama, crushing Vanars with each step.

Lakshman had had an idea. He observed that in his mad rage, Kumbhakarna was crushing both Vanars and Lankans alike. He quickly spread the word and at a signal, all Vanars in Kumbhakarna’s vicinity climbed up the body of the giant. The effect was that Kumbhakarna’s next few steps crushed only Lankans. And when he tried to smash the Vanars crawling all over him, he only managed to hurt himself, because they were pretty agile and quickly got out of the way of his blows.

He lumbered on towards Rama. So what if he didn’t have a club, he would swat Rama like a fly. But Rama had other ideas. He let loose a couple of his special arrows that neatly sliced off Kumbhakarna’s arms. The giant was enraged and he still came forward, jaws fully open ready to grab his prey. Hey, if a t-rex could manage with practically no arms, no reason a T-rex-sized man couldn’t. Kumbhakarna leapt forward sharp teeth glistening. But he stopped. Ram’s final arrow was forceful enough to knock him back. It went straight through his mouth, and instantly the Giant was killed. He fell to the ground, crushing another couple of hundred Vanars and Lankans in the process.

It was estimated that about 10000 Vanars were killed, and yet the day ended a lot worse for Ravana than it did for the Vanars. He was cornered. Indrajit was his only hope now. He hoped his invisibility batteries would be charged by the next morning. If not, they didn’t stand a chance.

That’s all for now

Some notes on the show

There’s a story explaining how Kumbhakarna and Ravana in previous births were actually gatekeepers at Vaikuntha, Vishnu’s home. They offended some people, and got cursed for it. Three lifetimes of being born as evil people whom an avatar of Vishnu would release. That’s what happened here, with Kumbhakarna’s defeat. He was free to move on to his third and final sentence. Ravana would soon join him too, but I won’t say too much right now, because spoilers!

Previous Ramayana episodes are linked in the show notes and on the site sfipodcast.com, check them out.

Ramayana – Stories From India 

That’s all for now. 

Next Time

In the next episode, we’ll do a story featuring a composer and singer and Vishnu devotee. I’m not talking about me, but about a couple of other fellows from medieval Karnataka.

Feedback

Thank you all for the comments on Social Media and on Spotify’s Q&A! I can’t directly reply to the questions there, but I’ll address them here on this show.

Vishruth, Hiranmayee, Prasanna, thank you as always for your support!
Thank you as well Biswa Mohan Dash.

Aniver, yes I’ll get back to the Mahabharata soon.

Samay, we covered the Ramayana today. I hope you liked it.

Bala, we’ll do the Asuras and Devs creation story. I’ve added it to my backlog.

If you have any other comments or suggestions or if there are particular stories you’d like to hear, please do let me know by leaving a comment or a review on the site sfipodcast.com, or reply to the questions on Spotify Q&A. You can also find me on Instagram and Facebook. If you want to send me an email it’s stories.from.india.podcast@gmail.com.

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A big thank you to each of you for your continued support and your feedback.

The music is from Purple Planet.

Thanks for listening and I’ll see you next time!