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Ravana would not have expected such a stiff resistance from his younger brother. He was always his right hand. He had won glorious victories for Ravana. He of course, was not endowed with divine boons as other rakshasas. The only boon he had was sleeping for a number of months at a stretch.
 When the Lord appeared before Kumbakarna at the end of his penance, the Devas were afraid that if this demon of demons is endowed with divine boons as well, he would become the most formidable enemy and would pose the worst threat to them. Therefore they requested Saraswathi to make him fumble for words so that he mispronounces the word by which he beseeched his boon. Kumbakarna intended to ask for
'nithyathva' (permanence) instead asked for 'nidhrathva' (slumber
forever). The Lord without a moment's delay granted the boon and disappeared. Kumbakarna had to pursue his penance once again to get an amendment to the boon - to reduce the length of sleep to half the year!
In terms of might, even Ravana was no match to him. By physical stature Kumbakarna was much taller than Ravana. Kamban says
'irundha podhum iraavanan nindrenath therindha meniyan'
Ravana would equal the height of Kumbakarna when the latter squats on the floor. He was the most endeared brother of Ravana. In fact Ravana treasured him, because of the glories that resulted from his wars with the Devas. Kamban with his inimitable sense of humour puts it 'when Kumbakarna wakes up from his
'aaz thuyil' (deep sleep) the Devas would undergo the same travails that the asuras would undergo when Vishnu wakes up from his
'ari thuyil' (divine sleep - all knowing sleep).
 At first Ravana was under the impression that he could handle these 'two handed weaklings'. But it turned out to be a fiasco. Ravana lost his chariot, weapons and all his army. He tasted disgrace for the first time. (Ravana had been defeated earlier by Vali and Karthaveeryarjunan also. But it was not this disgraceful.) He was standing on the ground. He was sent back by the magnanimity of Rama, to come prepared for war the next day.
'nadanthu poi nagaram pukkan' is how Kamban describes it. He walked back to his city. Height of disgrace! When did he walk the ground? When he sets out, he would either be on his chariot or his pushpaka vimana. The only emperor with a plane in those days!
It became then inevitable to wake up Kumbakarna. Kumbakarna had fallen asleep just before the island was besieged by Rama, Lakshmana and the Vanaras. Simple calculations of the number of days mentioned in the epic from the day on which Maruti set fire to Lanka would go to show that it would have been less than a month since he went to sleep. The night was therefore, still young for him.
He was woken up with great difficulty. But Ravana did not expect that Kumbakarna would advise him to send Sita back. He was taken aback
Hari Krishnan
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