The Mighty Kumbhakarna

The rakshasa sat questioning if they should really do what they needed to do. They feared the mighty Kumbhakarna, as he was one hundred times their size. He was capable of eating an entire village's people, their animals, their food, and their food's food. And it would only serve as an appetizer to his ferocious self. They sat there questioning if this was the right idea and all they could think about was his rage and anger, and more importantly his desire to eat.

"go and wake thee, before Rama kills us!", said Ravana.

So a rakshasa went.

"Wake up! Wake up! Rama is coming to kill us and we need your help!"

Kumbhakarna did not budge. The roar of a hundred lions could not wake him. The only thing to wake the giant was the smell of his favorite food, goat stew.

The rakshasa went and told his peers that the giant would not wake.

"He will not budge! We need goat stew, his favorite food!" said the rakshasa to his peers.

Unfortunately in the town there was a shortage of goats, as they had all migrated due to changes in the climate. There was no other option but to create a fake stew, and let the aroma wake the mighty Kumbhakarna.

"Go make stew of some other animal, bear, deer, I don't know! Otherwise Rama will turn us to stew!" cried one rakshasa.

"Let's just create deer stew and have the spirit turn its smell to goat. We have no other options."

And so they did.

The rakshasa went to wake the mighty beast, a barrel of his "favorite" stew propped up on his back. Kumbhakarna immediately woke to the aroma.

"Ah, you have woken me from my slumber with my favorite food. You know I do not enjoy being awake, but for this I will never mind."

The rakshasha was filled with fear that the beast would know it was all an illusion. His suspicions were correct. The beast in fact knew. The rakshasa informed him of Rama's intention to destroy the village, and how his mighty powers were needed to combat him and his army. He told the rakshasa to gather his army and meet him on the other side of the river.

The entire village loaded up with armor and weapons to fight Rama, met with Kumbhakarna at the river and found him sitting at a massive table, one only a giant could sit on. Kumbhakarna called out to the people, "Play with my food, and I play with you. You all have come here to die."

Kumbhakarna sprinkled salt all over the villagers and they had nowhere to run. He grabbed all of them and placed them in a giant pot. From the river he got water and added it to the bowl, lighting a fire beneath the pot letting it boil.

"Deceive me with my favorite stew, and you will end up as stew yourselves. Never play with a hungry man, especially if you do not plan to feed him. You all tried to take advantage of me, thinking I was a fat hungry fool! Alas! No goat stew, but rakshasa stew will do!"

And with that the villagers cried out for help, burning one by one in the pot. Never again did anyone mess with the Kumbhakarna.

Bibliography - Kumbhakarna from PDE Ramayana

Author's note - I wrote this story based on the story of Kumbhakarna, as I was fascinated at how he was such a large being and how all that went through his mind was to satisfy his belly. It is important to note, Kumbhakarna typically is an obedient and loving brother to King Ravana but in my rewrite I decided to make Kumbhakarna as a not-so-nice brother, rather someone who acted solely on his emotions. I thought that it would be more interesting that way, and how the raksashas were not expecting this type of behavior from him. But when you mess with his hunger, you will suffer. The Kumbhakarna was actually said to be a smart being, so he tricked the rakshasa into thinking he did not know the stew was fake and lured them over to his dinner table. The Ramayana that we read did not focus too much on Kumbhakarna and he interested me more than any other character, so I decided to write a little extra story on him.