• kaṁsam — Kaṁsa
  Accusative of Kaṁsa. The verse uses the personal name — without epithet, without title — because the demon has now been reduced to a corpse on the wrestling-arena floor. Gauḍīya tīkā: Kaṁsa's name without title is itself the announcement of his end.
• nāga - ayuta - prāṇam — whose vital strength was that of ten thousand elephants
  Compound: nāga (elephant) + ayuta (ten thousand) + prāṇa (vital force). The Bhāgavatam quantifies Kaṁsa's strength to make the killing's ease the more striking. Even ten-thousand-elephant strength is, before Kṛṣṇa, līlayā.
• mallau — the two wrestlers (Cāṇūra and Muṣṭika)
  Nominative dual of malla. Killed in SB 10.44. Verse cross-references the immediately preceding chapter — Nanda has clearly received reports.
• gaja - patim — the king of the elephants (Kuvalayāpīḍa)
  Compound: gaja (elephant) + pati (lord). Kuvalayāpīḍa, the elephant Kaṁsa stationed at the gate (SB 10.43). Gauḍīya tradition: the gaja-pati at Kṛṣṇa's gate is destroyed; the gaja-pati Gajendra at his own crisis is saved — the symmetry is part of the canto's theology.
• līlayā — as a game
  Instrumental of līlā. The signature term of Kṛṣṇa-theology. Whatever requires titanic effort from others, Kṛṣṇa does līlayā. The whole acintya-bhedābheda doctrine of effortless creation is condensed here.
• mṛga - adhipaḥ — the lion, king of animals
  Compound: mṛga (animal) + adhipa (lord). The Lord-of-beasts image — also the etymology behind Nṛsiṁha (man-lion). Gauḍīyas hear an echo: the Vraja-rakṣaka in His Mathurā register reveals the Nṛsiṁha-pulse always implicit in His protection.

Nanda recounts the Mathurā exploits not as a wonder-tale but as testimony — Kaṁsa, the wrestlers, Kuvalayāpīḍa — and the analogy he reaches for is the natural one: 'a lion among small animals.' Vraja-vātsalya knows its son is a lion, even when it dares not call him Bhagavān.