Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 10.44.22-23
Blended reading (Sanskrit + English inline)
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mālā - āhata
—
struck with a flower-garland
Compound: mālā (garland) + āhata (struck). The simile of the elephant: a great bull is not even brushed by a flower. The strike that Cāṇūra meant as vajra (verse 20) is registered by the Lord as mālā. The asymmetry is total.
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bhrāmayan
—
whirling
Present participle of bhram. Cf. BG 18.61 (bhrāmayan sarva-bhūtāni) — the Lord whirls all beings on the wheel of māyā. Here, in literal grammar, He whirls Cāṇūra. The cosmic and the local meet in one verb.
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indra - dhvajaḥ
—
Indra's flagpole
Compound: indra (the king of gods) + dhvaja (flag, pole). The festival-pole erected for the rain-festival of Indra. Cf. SB 10.24-27 — the very festival Kṛṣṇa cancelled in Vraja, replacing Indra with Govardhana. The simile recalls that earlier victory.
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kṣīṇa - jīvitam
—
whose life is exhausted
Compound: kṣīṇa (diminished) + jīvita (life). The same kṣīṇa-vocabulary used for the dying world before Kalki. The Bhāgavatam's lexicon of ending is consistent across cantos.
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visrasta - ākalpa
—
with scattered ornaments
Compound: visrasta (loosened, fallen) + ākalpa (ornament, attire). His wrestler's regalia comes apart in the air. The Bhāgavatam keeps showing demoniac ornaments scattering at the moment of death — adornments that bhakti would have purified are now just litter.
Śrīla Śrīdhara Svāmī explains the words indra-dhvaja as follows: “In Bengal, on the occasion of a certain festival, people erect a tall column in the form of a man and decorate it with flags, banners, etc. He [Cāṇūra] fell just as such a pole might fall.”
Indradvaja is famous in the eastern states.
Though he was the Lord, he began performing actions in order to give joy to his devotees who were suffering. He did not imitate being disturbed at all for obtaining pleasure of his own. Kṛṣṇa remained joyful, undisturbed like and elephant hit by many garlands. Though an elephant may be hit by many garlands, nothing happens to the elephant. Though Kṛṣṇa was struck many times by Cāṇūra with great force, nothing happened to Kṛṣṇa. Hari-vaṁśa describes this: yad ayaṁ bāhu-yuddhaṁ savairaṁ kartum udyataḥ / atra vai nigrahaḥ kāryas toṣayiṣyāmy ahaṁ jagat karūṣeṣu prasūto 'yaṁ cāṇūro nāma nāmataḥ / bāhu-yodhī sarīreṇa karmabhiś cānucintyatām // etena bahavo mallā nipātāntaram hatāḥ / raṅga-pratāpa-kāmena malla-mārgaś ca dūṣitaḥ // ye tu kecit sva-doṣeṇa rājñaḥ paṇḍita-māninaḥ / pratāpārthe hatā mallā malla-hantur vadho hi saḥ // Since Cāṇūra is eager to wrestler with enmity, I must punish him. I will satisfy the world by this. This wrestler called Cāṇūra, born from the descendants of Karūṣa, is famous by his body and actions. It should be known that he has defeated and then killed many wrestlers and spoiled the sport of wrestling by his desire for fame in the arena. Some of the wrestlers have been killed in order to give glory to the foolish king because of his faulty behaviour. Killing the wrestlers was murder. Kṛṣṇa whirled him around many times and in a variety of ways. By the force of throwing him on the ground Cāṇūra died. His life merged into the ākāśa. bhrāmayitvā śata-guṇaṁ daitya-mallam amitrajit / bhūmāv āsphoṭayām āsa gagane gata-jīvitam // Whirling the demonic wrestler around a hundred times he splayed him out on the ground and making his life merge in the sky. He threw Cāṇūra on the ground, shaking him (pothayām āsa), as if giving him up, while saying “He is dead.” The word sa apatat (he fell) should be added to the comparison. He is compared to a flag staff falling because of his great size. Hari-vaṁśa says: dehena tasya mallasya cāṇurasya gatāyusaḥ sanniruddho mahā-raṅgaḥ sa śaileneva lakṣyate The large arena appeared to be obstructed by a mountain with the dead body of Cāṇūra.
- Where could you receive a hard blow today as if it were a flower garland?
- What hostility might be best transformed by treating it as ornament?
Cāṇūra strikes the Lord's body, and the Lord is no more moved than an elephant struck with a flower garland. Then Kṛṣṇa grabs him, swings him through the air, and the wrestler falls like a festival flagpole. The flag of Kaṁsa's regime is taken down with the body of his own champion.
My note
Source: vedabase.io