• pratiloma-jaḥ — born from an inverted union
  Prati-loma = 'against the grain.' A child of a lower-varṇa father and higher-varṇa mother. The Vedic system regarded this lineage as bound to additional śīla-restrictions — not condemnation, but circumscription.
• dharma-pālān — protectors of dharma
  Dharma + pāla (protector). Used here of the brāhmaṇas. The brāhmaṇas guard dharma through learning and conduct; Romaharṣaṇa, by sitting above them, claimed their authority without their conduct.
• asmān — Me / Us
  Accusative plural — royal/divine 'We.' Balarāma includes Himself in the list of those over whom Romaharṣaṇa is sitting. The Lord of dharma will not abide being seated under the unseated.
• vadham arhati — deserves death
  Vadha (killing) + arhati (deserves). Balarāma's verdict. Gauḍīyas note: in this idiom 'vadha' is daṇḍa, the corrective action of the protector — not vengeance. The sūta's death will paradoxically install his son in his own seat.
• durmatiḥ — the misguided one
  Same word used for Dantavakra in v.1-2. The chapter binds the asura-vadha and the suta-vadha with one term — both fall under the same category of mati-failure, though one through dveṣa and the other through pride.

• PSarasvati Sw SB 10-78-24 - 2025-04-17 ISKCON Vrindavan
  His Holiness Prabodhananda Sarasvati Swami· 2025-04-17· English

• Where have I positioned myself above teachers who should be above me?
• What humility would restore the proper geometry?

Balarāma names the breach precisely: this man, born of a mixed marriage, sits above brāhmaṇas and above Me, the protector of dharma. The point is not the birth — it is the geometry. Where one places one's body in the assembly is a sermon; Romaharṣaṇa's body preached the wrong sermon.