• dāva-uṣṇa-khara-vātaḥ — a hot, harsh wind like a forest fire
  Compound: dāva (forest fire) + uṣṇa (hot) + khara (harsh) + vāta (wind). Four-stem compound — Bhāgavatam's poetic density. The image of dāvāgni recurs across Canto 10: chapter 17, chapter 19. Vraja survives every fire because Kṛṣṇa contains it.
• tat-dagdha-sattva — the beings he has burned/eaten
  Compound: tat (his) + dagdha (burned) + sattva (creature). The bodies inside him are 'burned beings.' Gauḍīyas note: souls eaten by Aghāsura cease being mere food when Kṛṣṇa enters — chapter 38 confirms even the demon himself attains sārūpya.
• durgandhaḥ — bad smell
  Compound: dur (bad) + gandha (smell). The boys observe the foul smell and identify it correctly. In Vraja, even noticing the rotten is part of the rasa — the children are precise observers, not idealists.

Imagine children noticing that a cave smells of cooked flesh and remarking calmly, 'must be old kills.' Their composure is not bravado — it is the natural fearlessness of those who have never been alone. The hot wind of Aghāsura's breath is the smell of every soul he has eaten; the boys walk through it as through a kitchen fire that cannot burn them.