The rakshasas try to wake up Kumbhakarna (17th century). Author unknown.
Link.
Dear Monkey,
I’m not one for keeping a diary, but I’ve so many things that I want to put down. I can’t keep all of these emotions bottled up. I think that if I did try to keep everything contained, I would only end up exploding one day and hurting everyone around me.
The problem started a long time ago, when Ravana wanted us to meditate on Brahma so this god would grant us each a boon. I was relatively accepting of this. Who wouldn’t want a gift from Brahma? On the other hand, I didn’t want to spend so much time meditating. I’d rather go hiking or knit a sweater. Imagine how many saris I could have made for the rakshasas dames had I spent that time in Lanka! Eventually, we had thought enough on Brahma that he appeared and said he would grant us our boons.
When Brahma asked what I wanted, I tried to say, “better skills in painting,” but what came out of my mouth was something completely different: “to sleep for twenty-four hours every day.” As I learned later, the goddess of speech, Saraswati, forced my tongue to ask for something foolish. Ravana, to his credit, protested. He wanted that “boon” to not be granted. Brahma relented (somewhat) and made it so that I would wake up for a short while every six months. As an aside, that’s one of the reasons I don’t write in this diary much.
Well, a long time passed and Rama appeared on the scene. He and my brother, Ravana, got into quite the tiff. Ravana told me all about it and called Rama names, but the prince seemed fine to me. He hadn’t done me any harm, anyway. What turned me against Rama was when he invaded Lanka with his monkey armies. I’m more peaceful than your average rakshasa, but that really got my goat. I had never invaded Rama’s kingdom. Why should he invade mine?
The battle had raged on for a while by the time Ravana and his rakshasa servants were able to wake me. I had been having a dream about some delicious curry dishes and, not having eaten for almost six months, I was famished. The rakshasas made me mountains of food. They weren’t the best chefs, but it was certainly filling. Once they had buttered me up like this, Ravana told me that Rama and his armies were at the castle walls. Naturally, I was pretty angry. With the help of a few hundred rakshasas, I prepared myself for battle and went out to meet Rama. He didn’t even wait to hear me out. He just started throwing his weapons at me. How rude! He may be a great warrior, but he’s no diplomat!
Rama and his armies tried to hurt me for about an hour. I’ve got skin several yards thick, so nothing could hurt (or so I thought). I laughed off all they threw at me. Sugriva the monkey king eventually tore off my ear, as though Rama, already deaf to words of peace, wanted to make his opponent literally deaf. It hurt terribly and I was in shocked. That’s when Rama pulled out his secret weapon: some magic arrows. He nocked these arrows and pulled back the string. Then he fired them at me!
I felt like I was going to die, the arrows were so sharp. I fell down on the ground and was unconscious for the next six months. They must have thought I was dead, as they never even bothered to check my body for a pulse. When I woke up, Lanka was in ruins. I’m writing this from palace, only half-destroyed. I’m glad I was able to find Monkey. I can’t imagine where I’d find another giant diary.
I can’t say I hate Rama anymore. My brother was certainly a jerk about kidnapping Sita, but he would never have actually hurt her. He was probably just playing one of his games. Once he got bored taunting Rama, he would have dropped Sita off. Maybe he went too far this time. Rama and Ravana should have talked it out by reasonable people. There wasn’t any need to kill thousands of rakshasas and burn whole towns to the ground.
It looks like my waking hours are coming to an end. In a few minutes, I’ll fall back asleep for another six months. I can barely keep my eyes open already.
Author's Note
Like one of my previous stories, I used a diary/journal entry to tell the story of a minor character. After reading an Amar Chitra Katha comic book about Ravana's brother, the giant Kumbhakarna, I thought that he got the short end of the stick. Ravana got to rule over Lanka and go wherever he wanted, but Kumbhakarna was stuck sleeping most of the time. I wanted to give Kumbhakarna an internal life of his own and present him as someone who was more inclined to art than to war.
Bibliography
Rao, Subba, and Das, Nandini. (2015). Kumbhakarna: The Sleeping Giant (volume 528). Amar Chitra Katha. Link.
Wow, you've really done something extremely creative with the source material here! I really like the opening "Dear Monkey," especially. It sets the tone for the rest of the piece really well early on. I like that you've gone inside of one of the lesser character's heads and given us a bit of a new perspective on it. It's fun and creative and makes for a really interesting read.
ReplyDeleteI think in the original version, they keep Kumbhakarna asleep because they are afraid of his destruction, so yours is a little of a deviation, which works really well. It allowed you to add a little creativity (like how the goddess of speech made Kumbhakarna say that he wanted to sleep for a long time). It also had an element of humor since if someone were sleeping for six months, their first thought would definitely be food.
ReplyDeleteI really love how you made Kumbhakarna into a much nicer character. I like that he now has a backstory and a life. It is easier to read stories when the character has motives for what they are doing. It made him seem like a more real character to me. I get really confused when characters are introduced and then just disappear and there is no clue as to where they came from or what happened to them, they have no purpose. But you gave him a purpose and I really liked that!
ReplyDeleteThis was so clever. Seriously, genius I am telling you!! I like that you expanded on a minor character which allowed you to view the story from a different angle. I thought it was all very intriguing how you went about it. As Sage it really can be confusing when characters just pop in then pop out of a story as they do often in the Ramayana... but your story most definitely gave them more meaning! Thanks for sharing your creativity with us!
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