01Sleep instead of a boon
Kumbhakarna did tapas beside his brothers, and the devas trembled at what he might ask; even unblessed he had been devouring the creatures of the earth. At their request Saraswati sat on his tongue when Brahma came, and Kumbhakarna asked to sleep for many years. In the Yuddha Kanda Vibhishana tells Rama another side of it: Brahma cursed him to sleep as if dead, and at Ravana’s plea softened it so that he would wake for one day after six months of sleep.
02Waking the giant
With Prahasta dead and himself beaten in his first fight with Rama, Ravana sent to wake his brother early. Rakshasas heaped mountains of meat and jars of wine beside him, blew conches and beat drums in his ears, pulled his hair, bit his ears and drove elephants over his body until he woke. He ate, drank and went to Ravana, and listened. Then he told him plainly: you acted first and took counsel afterwards; the fault is yours. But he was his brother, and he would go out and fight for him.
03The fall on the field
He waded into the vanara army, seizing them by handfuls and crushing them, and the army broke and ran until Angada rallied it. He struck Sugriva down with a mountain peak and carried him off toward the city under his arm, until Sugriva woke and tore off his ears and nose. Raging, he turned back to the field. Rama cut off one arm with the Vayavya astra and the other with the Aindra, then his legs, and at last his head, which fell on the gates of Lanka and smashed them while the body rolled into the sea. Ravana, Valmiki says, fainted at the news.