Astounded by Rama's valor, Khara rallied his people and advanced himself. Collecting their scattered courage, teeming around their king, the rakshasas charged Rama again. But quick as wishes, he drew a gandharvastra from his quiver and chanting its mantra, shot it at the demon army. The rakshasas saw a blinding fireball flare at them through the sky. The unearthly weapon broke, whistling, among them. The astra separated into a thousand arrows of fire and light; Rama's shafts filled the quarters. They turned into serpents with heads of flames and fell on the howling demons: one shaft for each rakshasa. And not an arrow but it took a life, consuming the fiend it struck, making ashes of him.
-R. Menon