Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 10.12.16
Blended reading (Sanskrit + English inline)
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ājagaram
—
a python form
From ajagara (python). The python is the largest non-mythic Indian serpent, but Aghāsura's body is mountain-scale. Gauḍīyas note: the python in Bhāgavatam (e.g. Nahuṣa in 6.13, Sudarśana in 10.34) is a recurring shape for cursed or demonized beings.
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yojana-āyāma
—
eight miles in length
Compound: yojana (~ 8 miles) + āyāma (extension). The traditional cosmographic unit. Bhāgavatam is precise about size — the body of the demon is not vague, it is measurable. Kṛṣṇa's expansion in verse 30 will exceed it.
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mahā-adri-pīvaram
—
as thick as a great mountain
Compound: mahā (great) + adri (mountain) + pīvara (thick). The Vraja landscape has Govardhana, a real mountain, just to the south. Aghāsura mimics that scale — Vraja's true mountain is Govardhana, lifted in chapter 25; this is its parody.
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guhā-ānanam
—
mouth like a cave
Compound: guhā (cave) + ānana (mouth). The cave-mouth is what allows the cowherd boys to mistake the demon for forest scenery in the next verse. The līlā uses optical ambiguity — Kṛṣṇa's pastimes often run on what looks like one thing but is another.
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khalaḥ
—
the wicked one
khala — the morally crooked. Bhāgavatam uses khala specifically for demoniac beings whose envy is constitutional. Distinct from a person who happens to act badly; this is character, not behavior.
Thinking in this way, Aghasura lay on the path in order to devour Krsna. He was a yojana in length (eight miles). He was as fat (pivaram) as a huge mountain (mahadri). His mouth spread open (vyattam) like a cave.
Resolving (vyavsya) thus, he spread himself out without moving since he was a cheating killer (khalaḥ), inclined to swallow little boys.
Resolving (vyavsya) thus, at that moment (tadā), he spread himself out without moving since he was a cheating killer (khalaḥ), who could easily swallow them all by tricky means. He would swallow them all at once since he was a python. Or he was cruel, with a proclivity for eating such boys.
Picture a hunter setting a trap so large that he himself disappears into it — a cave-mouth across the entire road, a serpent the length of eight miles. The geometry is unmistakable: only one road, only one way through, only one mouth. Aghāsura has made himself into the very door of his own death.
My note
Source: vedabase.io