“Me he shall suck” - Indra, King of Gods
An ancient king named Yuvanaswa had great wealth, good fortune and many wives. But no children, which he wanted more than anything. So the holy sage Bhrigu agreed to help prepare a magic potion for the king, and Yuvanaswa, being a very devout man, arranged a great ritual to please the gods. The ritual went on for several days, by the end Yuvanaswa was exhausted and very thirsty and as he stumbled around he came across a beautiful pitcher of water and drank all of it. PLOT TWIST. The pitcher was the magic potion prepared by the great sages, intended for the Queen.
So, obviously, the king himself got pregnant. Luckily for Yuvanaswa, he was held in high regard by the holy powers. And when his pregnancy came to term, the seven great sages and even the King of Gods, Indra, joined him and cut a hole in the king’s thigh to deliver the baby boy. But a new problem arose; the king could not breastfeed his child. Indra slit his thumb, and because he was a god, his veins were filled with life-giving nectar instead of blood. So he let the boy suck his thumb and he proclaimed “Mandhata”, and that was the name of the new king, who would conquer all of the earth.
And that’s why babies, being born with the memory of their divine ancestors, still suck their thumbs.
Note: contains beeswax, so not strictly vegan