Indian Mythology
Kumbhakarna slept six months at a time
Meaning to ask Brahma for indrasana, a throne, the giant's tongue slipped and he asked for nidrasana — sleep. Waking him took drums, elephants and armies walking over his body.
More in Indian Mythology
Hanuman tried to eat the Sun
As an infant, Hanuman mistook the rising sun for a ripe mango and leapt into the sky to swallow it. Indra struck him down with a thunderbolt, injuring his jaw — the name Hanuman means "disfigured jaw".
Ganesha wrote with his own tusk
When Vyasa dictated the Mahabharata, Ganesha agreed to scribe it only if the telling never paused. Mid-epic his pen broke, so he snapped off his own tusk and kept writing.
Gods and demons churned an ocean together
In the Samudra Manthan, devas and asuras used Mount Mandara as a churning rod and the serpent Vasuki as the rope to pull nectar of immortality from the ocean of milk. Poison surfaced first — Shiva drank it.
Arjuna saw only the eye of the fish
Asked what he could see, every prince described the tree, the sky, the crowd. Arjuna said he saw nothing but the eye of the revolving fish — and that focus won him Draupadi's hand.
Karna was born wearing armour
Karna came into the world with kavach and kundal — divine armour and earrings fused to his body that made him invincible. Indra begged them away as charity, and Karna cut them off rather than refuse a request.
Bhishma chose the hour of his own death
Granted the boon of dying only when he willed it, Bhishma lay on a bed of arrows for 58 days after falling in battle, waiting for the sun to turn north before letting go.