FolioCorpusŚrīmad-Bhāgavatam

Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 10.6.14

पतमानोऽपि तद्देहस्त्रिगव्यूत्यन्तरद्रुमान् । चूर्णयामास राजेन्द्र महदासीत्तदद्भ‍ुतम् ॥ १४ ॥
patamāno ’pi tad-dehas
[patamaano ’pi tad-dehas]
tri-gavyūty-antara-drumān
[tri-gavyooty-antara-drumaan]
cūrṇayām āsa rājendra
[choornayaam aasa raajendra]
mahad āsīt tad adbhutam
[mahad aaseet tad adbhutam]
patamānaḥ api — even while falling down tat - dehaḥ — her gigantic body tri - gavyūti - antara — within a limit of twelve miles drumān — all kinds of trees cūrṇayām āsa — smashed rājendra — O King Parīkṣit mahat āsīt — was quite gigantic tat — that body adbhutam — and very, very wonderful .
Blended reading (Sanskrit + English inline)
patamāno ’pi tad-dehas
patamānaḥ api
even while falling down
tat - dehaḥ
her gigantic body
tri-gavyūty-antara-drumān
tri - gavyūti - antara
within a limit of twelve miles
drumān
all kinds of trees
cūrṇayām āsa rājendra
cūrṇayām āsa
smashed
rājendra
O King Parīkṣit
mahad āsīt tad adbhutam
mahat āsīt
was quite gigantic
tat
that body
adbhutam
and very, very wonderful .
  • tri - gavyūti - antara — within a limit of twelve miles
    Compound — tri (three) + gavyūti (a Vedic unit, roughly four miles, lit. the range of a cow's lowing) + antara (within). The pasture-unit measures the demon's scale: every Vrajavāsī's ear and ax-blow will be involved in the cleanup.
  • drumān — trees
    Accusative plural of druma. The trees of Vraja are devotees in tree-form per later cantos (SB 10.21, the gopīs' praise of Vṛndāvana). Their being crushed under Pūtanā's body is, on one level, the Vrajavāsīs themselves shaken; on another, it is the visible proof for them that an asura had walked among them.
  • cūrṇayām āsa — smashed (to powder)
    Periphrastic perfect of cūrṇaya (to pulverize). Even the falling of the demon-body is destructive — Bhāgavata refuses to romanticize her exit. And yet verse 41 will tell us the burning of that same body produced aguru fragrance: the Lord transmutes even her wreckage.
  • adbhutam — wonderful, extraordinary
    Neuter — modifies tat (that body). The same word the gopīs use for Kṛṣṇa's deeds (verse 18). Bhāgavata holds the two senses together: the demon was extraordinary, the Lord more so.
  • mahat āsīt — was quite gigantic
    Phrase — mahat (great) + āsīt (was). Adjacent tokens used to register pure scale, with a subtle note: even mahat in the demoniac sense is finite, and finite things fall when the Unlimited (anantam, 10.6.8) takes off His shoes and stands up.
O King Parīkṣit, when the gigantic body of Pūtanā fell to the ground, it smashed all the trees within a limit of twelve miles. Appearing in a gigantic body, she was certainly extraordinary.

Because of the grievous hurt imposed upon her by Kṛṣṇa’s sucking her breast, Pūtanā, while dying, not only left the room but abandoned the village and fell down in the pasturing ground in her gigantic body.

— A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda
Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura Gauḍīya
Translation
O King Parīkṣit, when the gigantic body of Pūtanā fell to the ground, it smashed all the trees within a limit of twelve miles. Appearing in a gigantic body, she was certainly extraordinary.
Commentary

Because of the pain, Putana ran out of the house, passed out of the village and fell on the outskirts. The word "api" is used here to signify that not only while living, but even in dying, she was killing other living entities. All the trees within an area of six krosas were crushed. It was remarkable that only the trees were crushed, her body having avoided crushing the houses of the village. These trees belonged to Kamsa’s garden, whose fruits were for his enjoyment, according to Vaisvana Tosini (Jiva’s commentary).

Jīva Gosvāmī Gauḍīya
Commentary

Other astonishing facts are mentioned. Not only while living did she kill others, but in dying also she killed the trees all around for six krośas. This is signified by the word api. It was most astonishing that she crushed the trees for such a distance. Śukadeva addresses Parīkṣit as king of kings so that he can understand this and the glory of the Lord’s līlā-śakti.

Śrīdhara Svāmī Gauḍīya
Commentary

Other astonishing facts are mentioned. Not only while living did she kill others, but in dying also while falling (patamāno ‘pi) she killed the trees all around for six krośas. Or even in falling she was in great pain. Or even in that body (tad-dehaḥ api), she was killing entities because the body was huge. She crushed the trees for six krośas, but not other living beings. That was most astonishing. O king! Because you are a great king you should believe this.

Related verses
Concepts
JivaLila
Pūtanā's gigantic, tree-smashing corpse shows what false motherhood truly is — yet even she fell within Kṛṣṇa's range; demoniac scale dies at His touch.
Practical Applications
  • Notice today where you are impressed by sheer scale — wealth, follower counts, institutional size — and remember that Pūtanā too was 'extraordinary.'
  • Refuse to confuse outward magnitude with spiritual potency; measure the people and projects in your life by their relation to Kṛṣṇa, not their footprint.
  • When a 'gigantic' fear or obstacle looms in your day, recall that it falls within Kṛṣṇa's twelve-mile pasture — name it aloud and continue your sādhana.

Pūtanā's twelve-mile corpse flattening the trees of Vraja is the demon-mountain that towered over your sādhana for years finally toppling into a single afternoon — every habit and association that grew around it splintering at once. What looked like a permanent feature of the landscape was always living on borrowed time within Kṛṣṇa's pasture.

Kumbhakarṇa's fall

When Kumbhakarṇa, Rāvaṇa's gigantic brother, finally fell to Rāma's arrows on the battlefield of Laṅkā (Rāmāyaṇa, Yuddha-kāṇḍa), his body crashed across formations, crushing chariots and ranks. His scale had terrified the vānaras; his fall pressed the lesson home: no extraordinary magnitude survives the Lord.

Pūtanā's tri-gavyūti corpse plays the same note in Vraja's softer register. The wonder is not that she was huge — it is that something that huge fell within twelve miles of where the infant Kṛṣṇa was lying.

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