From the epics · 2 tellings · North India, Pan-India
The arrow Agastya gave (Rama kills Ravana)
Before the last fight Agastya teaches Rama the hymn to the sun. Rama cuts off a hundred heads that grow back, fights seven days and nights, and kills Ravana with the arrow Brahma made, at Matali's prompting. Tulsidas adds the nectar in Ravana's navel and the thirty-one arrows.
Agastya teaches Rama the Aditya Hridayam; the sun calls 'Hurry'. In Indra's chariot with Matali, Rama cuts down Ravana's flag, is angered at the blow to Matali, and cuts off a hundred heads that grow again, wondering why the arrows that killed Maricha, Khara, Viradha and Kabandha fail. The fight lasts seven days and nights. Matali tells him to use the arrow Brahma made for Indra, which Agastya gave him; it tears Ravana's heart, enters the earth and returns to the quiver. Drums and flowers; the sun steadies. Vibhishana laments; Rama: 'Hostilities end with death... he is as much mine as yours,' and the rites are done.
Ravana's illusions: ghosts, fire, rain of sand, false Hanumans; Rama breaks them with one arrow. Heads and arms grow back 'as greed grows with gain'. Rama looks at Vibhishana, who tells him of the nectar pool in the navel. Omens: howling animals, comets, an untimely eclipse, Mandodari's trembling, weeping images. Thirty-one arrows: one dries the nectar, the rest take the arms and heads; the trunk is cut in two; dying, Ravana roars 'Where is Rama?'. The arrows lay the heads before Mandodari; Ravana's radiance enters Rama's face.
What is different here:
Adds the nectar in the navel, Vibhishana's secret, the omens and the thirty-one arrows; leaves out Agastya's hymn and Matali's advice in these dohas.