Canto 3 -
Araṇya-kāṇḍa
Chapter 30: Khara Destroyed
Text 3.30.26
स विमुक्तो महाबाणो निर्घातसमनिस्वनः।
रामेण धनुरायम्य खरस्योरसि चापतत्॥
sa vimukto mahā-bāṇo nirghāta-sama-nisvanaḥ
rāmeṇa dhanur āyamya kharasyorasi cāpatat
saḥ = it; vimuktaḥ = and discharged; mahā-bāṇaḥ = the great arrow; nirghāta-sama-nisvanaḥ = producing the sound of a nirghāta; rāmeṇa = when Śrī Rāma; dhanuḥ = His bow; āyamya = stretched; kharasya = Khara’s; urasi ca = on chest; apatat = fell.
When Śrī Rāma stretched His bow and discharged the great arrow, it fell on Khara’s chest, producing the sound of a nirghāta.
NOTE. As noted in the commentary to Rāmāyaṇa 1.67.18, nirghāta has been defined in the Jyotiṣa-śāstras thus:
vāyunābhihato vāyur gaganāt patati kṣitau
yadā dīptaḥ khaga-rutaḥ sa nirghāto ’tidoṣakṛt
“Nirghāta is the phenomenon when wind clashes with wind and falls on the earth from the sky, and when the sound of the birds [in the sky under that circumstance] is excited. It creates extreme disturbance.”