Kumbhakarna is an important character in the Hindu epic Ramayana. He is a Rakshas (demon) as well as brother of Ravana, king of Lanka.
Kumbhakarna had Bat Ears.
Kumbhakarna literally means the person with ears like a pot (Kumbha means pot and Karna means ear). Kumbhakarna was a giant in size and depicted as large as mountain.
Despite his monstrous size and great hunger, Kumbhakarna had an innocent mind and good character though he killed many sages and ate them to show only his power.
Kumbhakarna was Tongue Tied
Kumbhakarna undertook a penance to get the blessings of Lord Brahma. Brahma was pleased with Kumbhakarna and offered him a boon. But that time Saraswati tied his tongue firmly.
So instead of asking for Indraasan (seat of Indra) Kumbhakarna uttered Nindraasan (bed for sleep). Brahma granted his request. Ravana realized that the boon was a curse in reality and so he asked Brahma to undo his boon.
Six months of OSA
In another version of the story Kumbhakarna did another austerity to ask Brahma to take his boon back and make him alert always. Thus Brahma decided that Kumbhakarna would sleep for six months at a stretch and remain awake for another six consecutive months. However when Kumbhakarna woke up from six months sleep he felt very hungry and ate whatever he got in the vicinity including humans.
Peace loving
During war with Rama, quite often Kumbhakarna was made awakened from the sleep with a great difficulty. However Kumbhakarna had no mood to fight. He tried to pursue Ravana to stop the war as he thought Ravana was wrong and was inviting unnecessary trouble by his useless insistence to marry Sitha. He also advised Ravana to release Sitha and put an end to the conflict with Rama.
At war
A fierce fight started between the Rakshasa and Vanara army. Kumbhakarna killed and ate many monkeys. Even he injured Hanuman, knocked Sugreeva down to unconsciousness and imprisoned him. Therefore Rama took the charge of the battle by himself. Kumbhakarna had magical power and he was adept with many illusive forms to confuse the enemy. It was difficult to hit Kumbhakarna`s true body as many Kumbhakarna appeared in front and all the missiles and arrow missed him.
Finally Rama attacked Kumbhakarna with his most powerful arrow strengthened with deadly divine missile. When this missile hit Kumbhakarna he was heavily injured and his life came to an end.
On the deathbed Kumbhakarna uttered the name of Rama and thus he was liberated from the instincts and tendency of mortal world.
