10.55 · The History of Pradyumna

• kāmaḥ — Cupid, desire personified
  Not the modern abstraction 'desire' but a person — Kāmadeva, a sa-aṁśa expansion of Vāsudeva. Gauḍīyas note that even kāma, when re-anchored to Kṛṣṇa, becomes the seed of prema (Caitanya-caritāmṛta Ādi 4.165, 'kāmera tātparya nije bhoga kebala / kṛṣṇa-sukha tātparya prema… ').
• vāsudeva-aṁśaḥ — an expansion of Lord Vāsudeva
  Compound: vāsudeva + aṁśaḥ (the expansion). Establishes Pradyumna's tattva from line one — He is not an ordinary jīva but a portion of Bhagavān entering līlā. The whole Pradyumna-Śambara episode must be read from this premise.
• rudra-manyunā — by Rudra's anger
  Compound: rudra (Lord Śiva) + manyunā (by the wrath). Śiva's manyu, though terrible, becomes the precipitating cause of Kāma's return to Vāsudeva — Gauḍīyas read every reverse, even divine wrath, as ultimately routed back toward the Lord.
• deha-upapattaye — in order to obtain a body
  Compound: deha (body) + upapattaye (for the obtaining). Even an aṁśa of Vāsudeva requires sanction to embody; the dehī is anterior to the deha. Useful against modern materialist reading that bodies generate selves.
• pratyapadyat — He came back
  From prati + √pad — 'returned into.' The same root-family as śaraṇam pra-pad (to take shelter). Gauḍīya hearing: even disembodied Kāma's first move is śaraṇāgati — return to the source.

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  His Grace Padaseva Prabhu· Oriya
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Kāmadeva, burnt to ashes by Rudra's wrath, has no body of his own — he returns into Vāsudeva like a spark drawn back into the fire from which it shot out. So with every jīva: when our borrowed bodies are consumed, only re-entry into the Lord's shelter restores a new form fit for service.

• vaidarbhyām — in the daughter of the king of Vidarbha
  Locative of Vaidarbhī — Rukmiṇī, daughter of Bhīṣmaka. Gauḍīyas read Rukmiṇī as Lakṣmī-tattva, so Pradyumna's birth is the Lord-Lakṣmī union producing the Lord's own aṁśa once more — a closed loop of divine personality, not a human procreation.
• kṛṣṇa-vīrya-samudbhavaḥ — generated from the seed of Lord Kṛṣṇa
  Compound: kṛṣṇa + vīrya (potency, seed) + samudbhavaḥ (arising). Vīrya here is not biological semen alone but Bhagavān's potency — Pradyumna is born of Kṛṣṇa's śakti, not of material elements. Hence the next phrase: 'in no way inferior to His father.'
• pradyumnaḥ — Pradyumna
  Etymology: pra (forward, intensely) + dyumna (splendor, glory). 'One whose splendor advances.' In the catur-vyūha (Vāsudeva-Saṅkarṣaṇa-Pradyumna-Aniruddha), Pradyumna presides over manas; the līlā-form here makes that tattva walk among Yādavas.
• anavamaḥ — not inferior
  an + avama (lowest, inferior). The Bhāgavatam's flat declaration: an aṁśa of Bhagavān, even when entering līlā as a son, carries the father's full potency. Gauḍīyas use this verse to defend the doctrine that Viṣṇu-tattva expansions are non-different in essence.
• pituḥ — of His father
  Genitive of pitṛ. The father is Kṛṣṇa Himself; sonship here is a līlā-relation, not a metaphysical demotion. Carry this through every later verse where palace women confuse Pradyumna for Kṛṣṇa — the confusion is doctrinally licensed.

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From the seed of Kṛṣṇa Himself, in the womb of Rukmiṇī, Pradyumna takes birth — sun's ray emerging from the sun, undimmed by the descent. Father and son share one luminosity; the Bhāgavatam will spend the chapter proving it by His every gesture.

• śambaraḥ — the demon Śambara
  An asura skilled in māyā (later v.14, v.21). Gauḍīyas read each named demon as a personified obstruction to bhakti — Śambara is illusion that disguises and isolates the bhakta-aṁśa from his rightful family. The cure will be Mahā-māyā given by Rati.
• kāma-rūpī — able to assume any form he desired
  Compound: kāma (desire, will) + rūpī (form-taker). Note the irony — Śambara who controls forms abducts Kāma Himself. Demonic shape-shifting versus divine svarūpa: the demon's forms are masks, the Lord's are svayaṁ-prakāśa.
• aniḥ-daśam — not yet ten days old
  Compound: an-iḥ (without) + daśam (the tenth). Pre-daśāha — before the tenth-day naming rite. By Vedic dharma the child is barely admitted to the world; the cruelty of stealing Him at that moment underlines Śambara's adharma.
• udanvati — into the sea
  Locative of udanvant (ocean-having). Where Viṣṇu reclines (kṣīrodaka-śāyī), Śambara casts Viṣṇu's own son — and the sea, the Lord's own bed, refuses to harm Him. Gauḍīya hearing: the elements are dāsas of Bhagavān, no matter who tries to deploy them.
• ātmanaḥ-śatrum — his own enemy
  Compound (genitive + accusative): ātmanaḥ (his own) + śatrum (enemy). Śambara has been warned by prophecy that this infant will slay him. The demon's foreknowledge does not produce surrender, only escalation — the asura signature throughout Bhāgavatam (cf. Kaṁsa, Hiraṇyakaśipu).

• Padaseva Pr SB 10-55-03 Oriya
  His Grace Padaseva Prabhu· Oriya

An infant ten days unborn from his cradle, hurled into the sea by a shape-shifting demon — the Lord's own son consents to be carried by waves. Bhagavān permits His expansions to be 'lost' so that the līlā of recovery can be staged; nothing about the loss is accidental.

• nirjagāra — swallowed
  Intensive of √gṝ (to swallow). Same root-family that names Garbhodaka (the cosmic embryo-ocean) — the fish becomes a tiny garbha for the Lord's son, a parody and miniature of Mahā-Viṣṇu lying within His own creation.
• bala-vān-mīnaḥ — a powerful fish
  Compound: bala (strength) + vān (possessing) + mīnaḥ (fish). The fish is described as powerful not by accident — only an unusually large fish could swallow an infant whole and survive long enough to be caught. The narrative is logistical, not mythic-vague.
• jālena-mahatā — with a huge net
  Instrumental: jālena (by a net) + mahatā (great). Jāla is also the standard word for māyā (the Lord's 'net'); the literal fisherman's net foreshadows the māyic net Śambara will throw in v.21 — and the Mahā-māyā that will unmake it in v.22.
• matsya-jīvibhiḥ — by fishermen, by those who live on fish
  Compound: matsya (fish) + jīvin (one who lives on). The Lord's son is now in the hands of those whose dharma is the killing of fish — Bhagavān permits His aṁśa to pass through the lowest social rungs of Dvārakā's coastal economy so that providence may use them as couriers.

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  His Grace Padaseva Prabhu· Russian
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  His Grace Padaseva Prabhu· Oriya
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  His Holiness Jayadvaita Swami· 2015-01-10· English

A powerful fish swallows the infant, and the fish is caught in a fisherman's net — link by link, the chain of 'capture' multiplies. Each captor thinks he has seized something; in truth Bhagavān is steering each net toward the kitchen where Rati waits. Bondage is the route, not the verdict.

• kaivartāḥ — the fishermen
  Kaivarta = mixed-caste fisherfolk. Notable that Caitanya-caritāmṛta later honors Rāmacandra Khān's kaivarta-servant who served Haridāsa Ṭhākura — kaivarta is not a slur in Gauḍīya hearing but a varṇa-position from which bhakti remains accessible.
• upājahruḥ — they presented
  Perfect of upa-ā-√hṛ (to bring near as offering). The same root-family as upacāra (item of worship). The fishermen think they are tribute-paying a tyrant; functionally they are presenting an offering whose contents will deliver their own liberator.
• sūdāḥ — the cooks
  Sūda = cook, butcher. Pradyumna will be 'unwrapped' by butcher-knives — a moment of risk that the Bhāgavatam underlines so the discovery feels providential, not staged.
• sudhitinā — with a butcher knife
  Sudhiti / sudhitinā — a cleaving instrument. The knife that should have killed the infant becomes the instrument that releases Him. Gauḍīya pattern: the very tools of māyā, in the Lord's hand, become instruments of revelation.
• adbhutam — amazing
  From a-budh — 'beyond ordinary comprehension.' One of the rasas in Sanskrit aesthetics (adbhuta-rasa). The cooks are gripped by adbhuta-bhāva, the gateway emotion through which the līlā now opens onto Māyāvatī.

• Padaseva Pr SB 10-55-05 Oriya
  His Grace Padaseva Prabhu· Oriya

The fish is offered to Śambara as tribute and taken to the kitchen — the demon's own table will deliver his death to him. Bhagavān routes the agent of doom through the captor's own gift; the asura sharpens the knife that opens the gift-belly.

• māyāvatyai — to Māyāvatī
  Dative of Māyāvatī ('the lady of māyā / illusion-power'). Her name is a clue and a foreshadow — she will hand Pradyumna the Mahā-māyā vidyā in v.16, the very weapon by which his foster-father is undone.
• nāradaḥ — Nārada Muni
  Devarṣi, son of Brahmā, eternal Vaiṣṇava. In Gauḍīya paramparā he is the guru of Vyāsa, hence the originating teacher of the Bhāgavatam itself. His arrival here is structurally indispensable: without explanation, the discovery would not become līlā.
• tattvam — the truth, the facts
  Tattva = 'that-ness,' the underlying reality. Nārada speaks tattva, not story — the Gauḍīya distinction between gossip about avatāras and tattva-jñāna about them. Hearing the same events as tattva is what makes them transformative.
• matsya-udara-niveśanam — the entrance into the fish's belly
  Compound: matsya (fish) + udara (belly) + niveśanam (entering, settling-into). Niveśa is also the term for a dwelling. Bhagavān 'takes up residence' even in a fish's stomach — there is no place outside His reach.
• śaṅkita-cetasaḥ — whose mind was full of astonishment
  Compound: śaṅkita (uncertain, astonished) + cetasaḥ (whose consciousness). Wonder is here the proper preface to revelation — adbhuta opens onto jñāna only when Nārada arrives to fill the unknowing with tattva.

• Padaseva Pr SB 10-55-06 Oriya
  His Grace Padaseva Prabhu· Oriya

A child found in a fish's belly, handed to a kitchen-keeper who happens to be his own wife — and Nārada arrives at the exact moment to name the mystery. Bhagavān stages no scene without a narrator on hand; in His arrangement, even the most uncanny coincidence is exegeted within the same hour.

• ratiḥ-nama — named Rati
  Rati = 'attachment, delight, the relish of union.' She is the personified śakti of Kāma; Gauḍīya theology treats rati as the seed-stage of bhāva-bhakti (Bhakti-rasāmṛta-sindhu). The līlā here is the Lord's poetic insistence that even Rati-tattva belongs ultimately inside His pastime.
• nirdagdha-dehasya — of him whose body was burnt to ashes
  Compound: nir-dagdha (completely burnt) + dehasya (whose body). The pluperfect tense of the marriage: bodyless husband, embodied wife, waiting. A figure for every devotee separated from the Lord's manifest form — the body of the relation has been 'burnt,' the relation persists.
• pratīkṣatī — waiting, looking forward to
  Present participle of prati-√īkṣ — 'looking-toward.' The whole bhakti-sādhana of viraha (separation) is contained in this participle. The bhakta does not 'cope' with the Lord's absence; she pratīkṣati — actively orients her seeing toward His return.
• sūda-odana-sādhane — in the preparation of vegetables and rice
  Compound: sūda (vegetable-cookery) + odana (boiled rice) + sādhane (in the work of). Honest kitchen work as the medium of pratīkṣā. Gauḍīyas read every act of cooking-for-the-Lord (Yaśodā, Rohiṇī, Mother Śacī) as sevā; here Rati's cooking is sevā for a Lord she has not yet seen reborn.
• kāma-devam — as Kāmadeva
  Compound: kāma (desire) + devam (the divine). Rati recognizes the deva-form, not merely the infant. Gauḍīya note: when the bhakta sees through Nārada's tattva, even an infant in a kitchen is identified as the deva He is.
• sneham — love, affection
  Sneha — literally 'wetness, oiliness,' the same root-family that names mother's milk flowing in Canto 10.9. Here the affection is conjugal-not-yet-known, mother-to-infant-on-the-surface: Rati must hold sneha in two registers at once until Pradyumna comes of age.

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Rati, husbandless since Śiva's third eye reduced Kāma to ashes, has waited in a demon's kitchen chopping vegetables — and now her husband is laid into her arms as an infant. The Lord's economy of separation and reunion is exact: years of widow's labor in an enemy's house resolve in a single bowl handed to her by cooks.

• kārṣṇiḥ — the son of Kṛṣṇa
  Patronymic from Kṛṣṇa. The Bhāgavatam uses this title repeatedly in this chapter (v.11, 21, 23) to keep reminding the hearer: every act of valor that follows belongs to Kṛṣṇa's potency expressed through His son.
• rūḍha-yauvanaḥ — having attained full youth
  Compound: rūḍha (fully grown, established) + yauvanaḥ (the state of youth). The same rūḍha appears at v.40 (rūḍha-bhāvāḥ — full-blown ecstasy). The poet links Pradyumna's bodily maturation to the bhāva He will provoke.
• nārīṇām — the enchantment of women
  Genitive plural nārīṇām (of women) + vibhramam (bewilderment, agitation). Same family as bhrama (whirl). The reader is told now what v.27-28 will dramatize: Pradyumna's beauty, like Kṛṣṇa's, is intrinsically captivating — not a moral failing of the women who see Him.
• vīkṣantīnām — of those (women) who looked upon Him
  Present participle, genitive plural. The act of looking (vīkṣaṇa, darśana) is the medium of attraction. Gauḍīya bhakti is darśana-based: the body of the Lord (or His aṁśa) is itself enchanting, not as a temptation to be feared but as a fact of His svarūpa.

• Padaseva Pr SB 10-55-09 Russian Translation
  His Grace Padaseva Prabhu· Russian
• Padaseva Pr SB 10-55-09 Oriya
  His Grace Padaseva Prabhu· Oriya
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  His Holiness Bhanu Swami· English
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  His Holiness Jayadvaita Swami· 2015-01-11· English

In a short span Pradyumna grows to full youth — sun rising from horizon to zenith in what felt like a single morning. The Lord's expansions are not bound by ordinary developmental clocks; the form arrives when the līlā needs it.

• padma-dala-āyata-īkṣaṇam — whose eyes are broad like lotus petals
  Compound: padma (lotus) + dala (petal) + āyata (extended) + īkṣaṇam (eyes). The same epithet used of Kṛṣṇa (puṇḍarīkākṣa) and Rāma. Pradyumna inherits the iconography exactly — the Bhāgavatam keeps proving v.2's 'not inferior to His father.'
• pralamba-bāhum — whose arms are long
  Compound: pralamba (extended, hanging down) + bāhum (arms). Ājānubāhu — arms reaching the knees — is one of the thirty-two lakṣaṇas of mahā-puruṣa-tattva. Pradyumna bears the marks of Bhagavān on His body.
• nara-loka-sundaram — the most beautiful in human society
  Compound: nara-loka (the world of men) + sundaram (beautiful). The same superlative the Bhāgavatam uses for Kṛṣṇa Himself. Establishes that any onlooker would mistake Him for the father — preparing v.27-28's palace scene.
• sa-vrīḍa-hāsa — with a bashful smile
  Compound: sa-vrīḍa (with shyness) + hāsa (smile). Vrīḍa is the gopī signature in mādhurya-rasa. Rati signals her change of mood entirely through aṅga-bhaṅgī — the body becomes the script.
• saurataiḥ — with conjugal gestures
  Instrumental plural of saurata (relating to surata, conjugal union). The poet uses the explicit term — Rati is not concealing the shift; she is announcing it. Gauḍīya hearing: the līlā here is theological, not erotic — kāma in the service of dharma between two divine persons.

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  His Grace Padaseva Prabhu· Oriya

Rati, having waited as foster-mother for years, now approaches Pradyumna with bashful smiles and raised brows — the wife rediscovering her husband in the body she has been bathing and feeding. Two registers of love braid into one without the body changing; only the recognition shifts.

• kārṣṇiḥ — the son of Kṛṣṇa
  Used here as Pradyumna confronts Rati — even when correcting His apparent mother, the title 'son of Kṛṣṇa' is kept. Gauḍīyas read this as the poet's quiet sub-signal: He speaks not from confusion but from the dignity of His real fatherhood.
• mātaḥ — O mother
  Vocative of mātṛ. Pradyumna addresses her in the mood He has known her in for years. Bhagavān honors the surface relation even when proposing to overturn it — moral order is maintained from inside the līlā, not waived in the name of higher truth.
• mātṛ-bhāvam — the mood of motherhood
  Compound: mātṛ (mother) + bhāvam (mood, attitude). Bhāva is a Gauḍīya technical term — the relational stance through which one approaches Bhagavān. Pradyumna asks: 'which bhāva are you in?' The categorial precision is doctrinal.
• atikramya — overstepping, transgressing
  Gerund of ati-√kram (to step over). Not a moral condemnation but a category-flag: 'you are not where you said you were.' The chapter's hinge — the next verse reveals that she was never the category He took her for.
• kāminī — a girlfriend, an amorous woman
  Feminine of kāmin. Carefully chosen: He does not call her wife (patnī) yet, only kāminī — because, by His present understanding, that is what her behavior amounts to. The verse stages the gap between social-name and tattva-name.

• Padaseva Pr SB 10-55-11 Russian Translation
  His Grace Padaseva Prabhu· Russian
• Padaseva Pr SB 10-55-11 Oriya
  His Grace Padaseva Prabhu· Oriya
• JAS SB 10-55-11-40 - Pradumna Exactly Resembles as Krishna - 2015-01-13 ISKCON Chowpatty
  His Holiness Jayadvaita Swami· 2015-01-13· English

Pradyumna, raised on her lap and milk, rebukes her gently: 'Mother, your mood has shifted.' He does not refuse the love — He names the change so the relation must declare itself. Bhagavān will not glide over a category-mistake; even when the truth will soon flip the categories, the present moment must be addressed honestly.

• nārāyaṇa-sutah — the son of Lord Nārāyaṇa
  Compound: nārāyaṇa (the Lord) + sutah (son). Rati gives Kṛṣṇa His Vaiṣṇava-tattva name, not the Yādava family-name. She is naming whose son Pradyumna actually is at the level of theology, not biology.
• adhikṛtā-patnī — legitimate wife
  Compound-phrase: adhikṛtā (authorized, lawful, having the right) + patnī (wife). Adhikāra is a Gauḍīya legal term — Rati holds the doctrinal right (cf. śāstric marriage). The Bhāgavatam refuses any ambiguity about consent or category.
• kāmaḥ — Cupid
  Same nominal as v.1; here re-applied to identify Pradyumna's previous body. Closes the loop: Kāma returned to Vāsudeva, was born from Kṛṣṇa, was lost into the sea — and is now standing before Rati, named.
• prabho — O master
  Vocative of prabhu — Lord, master. Rati addresses Pradyumna with the term a wife uses for her own husband-as-Lord. In Gauḍīya hearing, every śaraṇāgata wife's 'prabho' echoes the larger śaraṇāgati to Bhagavān; the conjugal frame and the bhakti frame share grammar.

• Padaseva Pr SB 10-55-12 Oriya
  His Grace Padaseva Prabhu· Oriya

Rati answers in tattva — 'You are Nārāyaṇa's son, kidnapped from your parents; I am Your wife.' The two clauses unfold the relationship in a single breath: father restored on the Lord's side, husband restored on hers. One sentence undoes a decade of misidentification.

• aniḥ-daśam — not yet ten days old
  Compound: an-iḥ (without) + daśam (the tenth). Repeated from v.3 verbatim. Rati's memory of His abduction is precise to the day; widowhood made her count. The detail also indicts Śambara: the child was below the threshold of Vedic society's protection.
• sindhau-akṣipat — threw into the sea
  Locative sindhau (in the sea) + akṣipat (hurled). Sindhu is the ocean as cosmic body — the same waters where Mahā-Viṣṇu reclines. The asura's violence dispatched the Lord's son into the Lord's own bedroom.
• agrasīt — devoured
  Aorist of √gras (to swallow). The same root used at v.4 for the fish; Rati's verb-choice matches the narrator's, marking her account as faithful exegesis, not embellishment.
• udarāt — from the belly
  Ablative of udara. The same noun as in v.6 (matsya-udara-niveśanam). Pradyumna's body has now made the full circuit — entered the belly, dwelt within, emerged. A parodic miniature of Garbhodaka-līlā.
• prabho — O master
  Repeated from v.12. Rati has shifted definitively to wife-mode; every utterance is now in the prabhu-frame. The repetition is doctrinal — the new naming is not a slip but a fixed address.

She tells Him His own story — 'thrown into the sea before You were ten days old, swallowed by a fish, retrieved in this very kitchen.' The bhakta narrates the Lord's biography back to Him; the Lord receives His past from the lips of the one who waited.

• jahi — kill, please kill
  Imperative of √han. The same verb Kṛṣṇa uses to Arjuna at BG 11.34 (tvayā jitāḥ … jahi mā vyathiṣṭhāḥ). Rati commands the Lord's son the way Kṛṣṇa commands His friend: dharma-yuddha requires the imperative.
• durdharṣam-durjayam — difficult to approach and difficult to conquer
  Compound: dur-dharṣa (hard to assail) + dur-jaya (hard to defeat). Both formed with dur (difficult) + verbal root. The doubling acknowledges Śambara's real power; the Bhāgavatam never makes its demons paper villains.
• māyā-śata-vidam — who knows a hundred magic spells
  Compound: māyā (magic, illusion) + śata (hundred) + vidam (knower). Śambara is a master of māyā but not of Mahā-māyā — the distinction the next two verses turn on. Quantity of magic does not survive contact with the Lord's own potency.
• māyābhiḥ-mohana-ādibhiḥ — by bewildering magics and such
  Instrumental plural: māyābhiḥ (by magics) + mohana (bewilderment) + ādibhiḥ (etc.). Rati prescribes counter-māyā — the Lord defeats illusion with illusion's own grammar wielded by Mahā-māyā, His own internal potency.

• Padaseva Pr SB 10-55-14 Oriya
  His Grace Padaseva Prabhu· Oriya

Rati hands Pradyumna a strategy: 'He knows a hundred magics; You must answer with bewildering magic.' The wife as war-counselor — Sītā prepared by Anasūyā, Draupadī advising the Pāṇḍavas, here Rati equipping Kāmadeva. Bhakti is not passivity; it puts weapons into the Lord's hand at the right hour.

• pariśocati — she is grieving
  Pari + √śuc (to grieve completely, around-and-around). Not a passing sadness — the prefix pari intensifies. The same root names śoka, the emotion Arjuna confesses at BG 2.8.
• kurarī — an osprey, kurarī bird
  A bird famed in Sanskrit poetry for its piercing cry when its chick is lost. The Bhāgavatam repeats this simile for Rukmiṇī at 10.90.15 also — a fixed iconography for the mother-Goddess in viraha.
• putra-sneha-ākulā — overwhelmed by love for her child
  Compound: putra (son) + sneha (affection) + ākulā (agitated, overwhelmed). Same sneha-vocabulary as the Yaśodā-Kṛṣṇa chapters; vātsalya-rasa is not silent, it cries out.
• vivatsā-gauḥ — a cow deprived of its calf
  Compound: vi-vatsā (without-calf) + gauḥ (cow). The dharmic image — a cow who has lost her calf will not eat, will not move. Gauḍīya hearing: every Vraja gopī's separation from Kṛṣṇa is figured as this, the cow-and-calf vātsalya cracked open.
• āturā — extremely distressed
  From ā + √tṛ in the sense of being afflicted. Carries somatic weight — āturā is the noun-form used for one who is physically ill. Rukmiṇī's grief has crossed from emotion into bodily suffering; Rati names this so Pradyumna will move.

• Padaseva Pr SB 10-55-15 Oriya
  His Grace Padaseva Prabhu· Oriya

Far away in Dvārakā, Rukmiṇī weeps for her stolen son like a kurarī bird who has lost her chick, like a cow whose calf has been taken. Rati names the cost of separation: the Lord's līlā of abduction is paid for in His mother's tears, and recovery is owed back to her.

• vidyām — mystic knowledge, vidyā
  Accusative of vidyā — feminine knowledge-power, contrasted with avidyā. In Gauḍīya theology, vidyā always names a personalist knowing that joins the knower to a person, not a fact about an impersonal field.
• mahā-māyām — the Mahā-māyā vidyā
  Compound: mahā (great) + māyām (māyā). Distinct from the limited māyā Śambara wields — Mahā-māyā is Bhagavān's own internal potency (svarūpa-śakti). Gauḍīyas distinguish māyā-śakti (covering) from yoga-māyā / mahā-māyā (revelatory).
• mahā-ātmane — to the great soul
  Compound: mahā (great) + ātmane (to the soul, dative of ātman). Pradyumna is mahā-ātmā — not in the modern abstract sense, but as a Viṣṇu-tattva expansion. The wife who hands Him the vidyā recognizes His scale.
• sarva-māyā-vināśinīm — which destroys all other māyās
  Compound: sarva (all) + māyā (illusions) + vināśinīm (destroying, fem.). The vidyā is one and yet undoes hundreds. Gauḍīya pattern: there is no count-of-tools required for the Lord — one śuddha-nāma, one mahā-mantra, undoes the entire fabric of illusion.

• BKG SB 10-55-16 - It appears that the Lord needs help though He doesn%27t - 2024-10-22 New Goloka
  His Holiness Bir Krishna Goswami· 2024-10-22· English

Māyāvatī hands her husband the Mahā-māyā vidyā — a wife arming her Lord with the only mantra that unmakes every other māyā. The internal potency disarms the external. Bhagavān receives even His weapons from His own śakti, never from anywhere else.

• abhyetya — approaching
  Gerund of abhi-√i — to come directly toward. He does not ambush; He walks up. Compare Arjuna at Kurukṣetra: dharma-yuddha requires face-to-face confrontation.
• saṁyugāya-samāhvayat — called him to battle
  Compound: saṁyugāya (for battle, dat.) + samāhvayat (he called out). Formal challenge — the Kṣatriya code. The Bhāgavatam keeps Pradyumna squarely inside dharma even when fighting an asura.
• aviṣahyaiḥ — with intolerable insults
  Compound: a-viṣahya (unbearable) + ākṣepaiḥ (with reproaches). The insults are calibrated — Pradyumna chooses words Śambara cannot ignore so that the asura must come out to fight rather than retreat into his palace.
• kalim — a fight, quarrel
  Kali — strife, contention. (Distinct from Kali-yuga's eponym but etymologically related.) The Lord's son provokes kali to end kali — a structural irony the Bhāgavatam enjoys.

• Padaseva Pr SB 10-55-17 Oriya
  His Grace Padaseva Prabhu· Oriya
• Tamohara Pr SB 10-55-17-25 - 2014-12-02 ISKCON Alachua
  His Grace Tamohara Prabhu· 2014-12-02· English

Pradyumna approaches Śambara not by stealth but by insult — He provokes the duel openly. The Lord's līlā includes verbal challenge; dharma-yuddha begins with declared cause. He will not slay an enemy who has not first been called to face Him.

• padā — a snake struck by the foot
  Compound: padā (by foot) + āhataḥ (struck) + uragaḥ (snake). A stock Bhāgavata simile for sudden, unthinking rage. Snakes don't strategize; they strike. The Bhāgavatam diagnoses asura-psychology — wounded pride flares before reason can intervene.
• gadā-pāṇiḥ — club in hand
  Compound: gadā (mace, club) + pāṇiḥ (hand). The asura's chosen weapon — heavy, blunt, requiring brute force. Contrast Pradyumna's eventual use of asi (sharp sword, v.24) — discernment versus blunt force.
• amarṣāt — out of intolerant anger
  Ablative of amarṣa — anger arising from inability to bear an offense. Distinct from krodha (general anger); amarṣa is specifically pride-injured rage. Diagnostic vocabulary.
• tāmra-locanaḥ — whose eyes were copper-red
  Compound: tāmra (copper-colored) + locanaḥ (eyed). The body reads out the rage. Gauḍīyas note the contrast with Kṛṣṇa's reddish eyes (rakta-locana) when He is moved by love (v.27-28) — same color, opposite ground.

Stung by insults, Śambara emerges 'like a kicked snake' — copper-eyed, club in hand. The asura's wrath is reflexive, not strategic; the moment ego is touched, the body comes out. Bhagavān's son knew exactly which line to speak to elicit this response.

• āvidhya — whirling
  Gerund of ā-√vyadh — to wind, twirl. The pre-throw motion of the club — Śambara generates centrifugal force to maximize the hurl. Detail-faithful Bhāgavata combat description.
• mahā-ātmane — to the wise one, the great soul
  Compound: mahā + ātmane (dat.). Same epithet applied to Pradyumna at v.16; the poet keeps reminding us that even when struck at by Śambara's club, Pradyumna's stature is that of mahā-ātmā — the contest is asymmetric in essence even before it is in outcome.
• vajra-niṣpeṣa-niṣṭhuram — as harsh as the striking of lightning
  Compound: vajra (thunderbolt) + niṣpeṣa (collision, striking) + niṣṭhuram (harsh, cruel). Vajra is Indra's weapon; Śambara's club is compared to the highest-tier divine missile. The Bhāgavatam grants the asura full literary stature before its hero unmakes him.

Śambara whirls his club and hurls it with a thunder-crack sound — the asura announces his force by noise. Bhagavān's enemies are loud; His own potency works quietly through Mahā-māyā. The decibel of an attack is no measure of its outcome.

• āpatantīm — flying toward Him
  Present participle of ā-√pat (to fall toward, approach). The club is mid-flight when Pradyumna acts — a snapshot of present-tense response. Sākṣād-jñāna in combat.
• bhagavān-pradyumnaḥ — the Supreme Lord Pradyumna
  Apposition: bhagavān (the Lord) + pradyumnaḥ. The Bhāgavatam upgrades the title at the moment of His decisive response — bhagavān, not merely kārṣṇiḥ. The verse's grammar marks the elevation.
• apāsya — driving off, deflecting
  Gerund of apa-√as — to throw off, away. Pradyumna does not merely block; He turns the missile aside. A move that requires equal force precisely countered — symbolic of how the Lord meets every asura assault.
• kruddhaḥ-prāhiṇot — angered, He threw
  Compound participle + verb: kruddhaḥ (angered) + prāhiṇot (sent forth). Pradyumna's krodha is dharma-krodha — anger inside dharma, the same emotion Nṛsiṁha bears toward Hiraṇyakaśipu. Bhagavān's anger is doctrinally legitimate; the asura's amarṣa (v.18) is not.

Club meets club mid-air — Pradyumna deflects Śambara's gadā with His own and hurls back. The exchange is exact, gesture-for-gesture, before the magical phase begins. Bhagavān's son will fight conventionally as long as the rules of engagement hold; only when the asura cheats does Mahā-māyā come out.

• māyām — the magic of the Daityas
  Compound: māyām (illusion) + daiteyīm (belonging to the Daityas, demons descended from Diti). A specific tradition of dark mantra. The Bhāgavatam names the lineage to keep the contest concrete.
• maya-darśitam — shown by Maya
  Compound: maya (Maya Dānava) + darśitam (shown, taught). The verb darśita literalizes the transmission — Maya 'showed' the techniques. Asura paramparā is real and traceable; it is not a fog.
• astra-mayam-varṣam — a rainfall consisting of weapons
  Compound: astra (weapons) + mayam (consisting of) + varṣam (rain). Same -maya suffix as in cin-maya, ānanda-maya — '-stuff.' Śambara's rain is weapons-stuff, the way Vaikuṇṭha is ānanda-stuff. The grammar parodies the higher register.
• vaihāyasaḥ — standing in the sky
  Adjective from vihāyas (the heavens). The asura takes to the air to escape ground-rules. Cf. Naraka, Bali, and other asuras whose strategy is altitude. Bhagavān's response is always to bring the contest back to His own terrain.

Cheated of victory by the club, Śambara takes to the sky and rains weapons — Maya Dānava's black magic, taught long ago to the Daityas. The asura's last move is always to abandon the agreed terrain. From this point Pradyumna must answer with non-physical resources: the chapter is about to pivot to Mahā-māyā.

• raukmiṇeyaḥ — the son of Rukmiṇī
  Patronymic from Rukmiṇī. The Bhāgavatam switches from kārṣṇiḥ (son of Kṛṣṇa) to raukmiṇeyaḥ at the moment Pradyumna calls on Mahā-māyā — because the vidyā belongs to the Lakṣmī-side of His parentage, the śakti-line. Naming follows tattva.
• mahā-rathaḥ — the powerful warrior
  Compound: mahā (great) + rathaḥ (chariot-warrior). Technical Kṣatriya rank — a maharatha can fight ten thousand ordinary warriors at once. Used of Bhīṣma, Droṇa, Arjuna; here applied to Pradyumna to mark His combat-stature.
• sattva-ātmikām — consisting of the mode of goodness
  Compound: sattva (the guṇa of goodness) + ātmikām (whose nature is, fem.). Mahā-māyā is not the same substance as Śambara's tāmasic illusions. The vidyā has a guṇa-signature — sattva — and therefore can dispel the lower guṇas.
• mahā-vidyām — the great mystic knowledge
  Compound: mahā (great) + vidyām (knowledge). Echoes v.16's mahā-māyām. Vidyā here is operationally identical to mahā-māyā — knowledge that is also potency, never a separable fact about the world.
• sarva-mayā-upamardinīm — which crushes all (other) magics
  Compound: sarva (all) + mayā (magics) + upamardinīm (crushing, fem.). Restates v.16's vināśinīm with a stronger verb. The Bhāgavatam doubles its claim because the moment of deployment is the verse's climax.

Battered by the weapon-rain, Raukmiṇeya — son of Rukmiṇī — deploys Mahā-māyā, the vidyā born of sattva-guṇa that unmakes every lower māyā. The wife's earlier gift now does its work; bhakti supplies the weapon, the Lord wields it.

• gauhyaka-gāndharva-paiśāca-uraga-rākṣasīḥ — weapons of the Guhyakas, Gandharvas, witches, celestial serpents, and Rākṣasas
  Compound listing five classes of supernatural beings, each with its own mantra-lineage. The Bhāgavatam exhibits the breadth of demonic resources; the line itself is exhausting to read, mirroring the assault.
• śataśaḥ — hundreds
  Distributive adverb — 'by the hundreds.' Echoes v.14's māyā-śata-vidam ('knower of a hundred māyās'). The promised hundred now arrives; Pradyumna's promised response — Mahā-māyā — handles them all.
• vyadhamayat — struck them all down
  Causative imperfect of vi-√dhmā (to blow away, scatter). The Lord's son does not meet each missile with a counter-missile; He scatters them. Mahā-māyā functions categorically, not item-by-item.
• kārṣṇiḥ — Lord Pradyumna, son of Kṛṣṇa
  Reverts from raukmiṇeyaḥ (v.22) back to kārṣṇiḥ — now that Mahā-māyā is operational, the Lord's son resumes acting as the Lord's son, with paternal authority over demonic forces. Naming tracks the bhāva.

Śambara empties his arsenal — Guhyaka weapons, Gandharva spells, Piśāca curses, Uraga snake-missiles, Rākṣasa charms — and Pradyumna strikes them all down. A roll-call of every illusion-class the universe has on offer; the Lord's son does not catalog, He simply dispatches.

• niśātam-asim — sharp-edged sword
  Compound: niśātam (sharpened) + asim (sword). The sword (asi) replaces the club (gadā) of v.18-20 — the Lord shifts weapon-grade at the moment of execution. Asi is the weapon of discriminating cut, not bludgeoning force.
• kirīṭam — helmet and earrings
  Compound: kirīṭa (helmet, crown) + kuṇḍala (earring). The two principal head-ornaments of a royal warrior. Both are taken off with the head — Pradyumna severs Śambara's full social identity, not just his neck.
• tāmra-śmaśru — copper-red mustache
  Compound: tāmra (copper-colored) + śmaśru (mustache, beard). The same tāmra used of Śambara's enraged eyes in v.18 — the demon's pigmentation is consistent. The poet keeps his iconography stable to the end.
• ojasā-aharat — with force, He removed
  Instrumental ojasā (with power) + aharat (he took away). Ojas in Vedic vocabulary is heroic vital force; the verb aharat is gentle ('removed') juxtaposed with the noun's intensity. The understatement marks divine ease.

Drawing His sharp sword, Pradyumna severs Śambara's head — copper-mustached, helmeted, ear-ringed — in one blow. Discernment-as-blade: the Lord's son does not destroy Śambara's whole apparatus; He cuts where it counts. Bhakti's work, finally, is to sever one specific head — the identification with the false body, the false ruler.

• divi-jaiḥ — by the heaven-born, the residents of heaven
  Compound: divi (in heaven, loc.) + jaiḥ (born). The devas honor a deed that frees the cosmos from one of its great asuric obstructions — Śambara is on their threat-list, not just Pradyumna's.
• kusuma-utkaraiḥ — with showers of flowers
  Compound: kusuma (flowers) + utkaraiḥ (with abundant scatterings). Puṣpa-vṛṣṭi — the standard cosmic recognition of a Vaiṣṇava victory, used at Rāma's killing of Rāvaṇa, at Nṛsiṁha's slaying of Hiraṇyakaśipu, here at Pradyumna's victory over Śambara.
• bhāryayā-ambara-cāriṇyā — by His wife, traveling in the sky
  Compound phrase: bhāryayā (by His wife, instr.) + ambara (sky) + cāriṇyā (traveling, fem. instr.). Māyāvatī can fly — a siddhi consistent with her being Rati, a goddess. The wife is the vehicle home; bhakti is the conveyance.
• puram — to the city, through the sky
  Compound phrase: puram (city) + vihāyasā (through the air, instr.). Pur — Dvārakā, the city. Vihāyas — the high atmosphere. The return journey takes the upper route; the asura's downward sea-cast (v.3) is undone by an upward sky-flight.

The devas shower flowers and chant praises while Māyāvatī, traveling the sky, carries Pradyumna home to Dvārakā. The wife who waited in a kitchen now flies him through the heavens. Bhakti completes the circuit it began: cooked food in viraha, sky-travel in milana.

• antaḥ-pura-varam — the most excellent inner palace
  Compound: antaḥ (inner) + pura (city, palace) + varam (best). Kṛṣṇa's antaḥ-pura — the queens' quarters — is the most exclusive interior of Dvārakā. Pradyumna enters not by the main gate but the inner one, by sky.
• lalanā-śata-saṅkulam — crowded with hundreds of lovely women
  Compound: lalanā (lovely women) + śata (hundreds) + saṅkulam (filled). Kṛṣṇa's 16,108 queens (cf. Canto 10.59) and their attendants — the most populated interior in the Bhāgavatam. The crowd will set up the v.27-28 mistake.
• vidyutā-iva-balāhakaḥ — like a cloud with lightning
  Compound simile: vidyutā (by lightning, instr.) + iva (like) + balāhakaḥ (cloud). The dark husband, the bright wife. The same simile used of Kṛṣṇa-and-Rukmiṇī in 10.53; the poet reaches for it again to mark inheritance.

• LMM SB 10-55-26-29 - 2014-12-03 ISKCON Alachua
  Her Grace Laxmimoni Mataji· 2014-12-03· English

They descend into Kṛṣṇa's inner palace like a cloud accompanied by lightning — dark Pradyumna with golden Māyāvatī at His side. Husband and wife enter the antaḥ-pura as a meteorological event; the women inside cannot tell whether to greet a Lord or take cover.

• jala-da-śyāmam — dark-blue like a rain cloud
  Compound: jala-da (water-giver, cloud) + śyāmam (dark blue). Kṛṣṇa's signature complexion. The first listed feature is the diagnostic one; everyone in Dvārakā would recognize it instantly.
• pīta-kauśeya-vāsasam — yellow silk-garmented
  Compound: pīta (yellow) + kauśeya (silk) + vāsasam (clothed). Pītāmbara — the second diagnostic of Kṛṣṇa's image, immortalized in every Vaiṣṇava temple. The son inherits the dress as well as the body.
• mukha-ambhojam — lotus face
  Compound: mukha (face) + ambhojam (lotus). The standard Vaiṣṇava facial image — round, open, fragrant, opening toward bhaktas as a lotus opens to the sun. Gauḍīyas dwell on Kṛṣṇa's mukha-ambhoja in countless verses; here it migrates to Pradyumna.
• nīla-vakra-ālaka-ālibhiḥ — with rows of curling blue locks
  Compound: nīla (blue) + vakra (curling) + ālaka (locks of hair) + ālibhiḥ (with rows). The hair-style is so specific that it functions as a fingerprint. The Bhāgavatam refuses generic description even at the cost of polysyllabic verses.
• hrītāḥ-nililyuḥ — becoming bashful, they hid
  Compound verbal phrase: hrītāḥ (made shy) + nililyuḥ (concealed themselves). The queens' modesty is the proof of identification — they would only hide from their own husband. Hrī (shyness) is a Vaiṣṇavī signature; the body responds correctly even when the mind misreads.

Dark-blue complexion, yellow silk, long arms, lotus face, curling blue locks — the women see Kṛṣṇa Himself walk in, and hide in shyness. Pradyumna's body is so exactly the father's that the queens of Kṛṣṇa mistake the son for the husband. Inheritance, in Bhagavān's family, is iconographic to the millimeter.

• īṣat-vailakṣaṇyena — by the slight difference of appearance
  Compound: īṣat (slight) + vailakṣaṇyena (by distinction, instr.). The difference is real but small — Pradyumna is an aṁśa, not Bhagavān Himself. Gauḍīyas read this as the doctrinal tag: aṁśa is non-different in kind, slightly different in degree.
• pramuditāḥ — delighted
  From pra-√mud — to rejoice intensely. The queens' delight at the resolved confusion is the chapter's emotional pivot — fear-of-discovered-husband becomes joy-at-discovered-son.
• strī-ratnam — the jewel among women
  Compound: strī (woman) + ratnam (jewel). Used of Rukmiṇī in 10.52, of Sītā in the Rāmāyaṇa, here of Māyāvatī. The wife of an aṁśa receives the same honorific the wife of Bhagavān receives.
• su-vismitaḥ — very surprised
  Compound: su (very) + vismitaḥ (astonished). Vismaya/adbhuta-rasa, again — the chapter is bracketed by it (cf. v.5, v.6). Recognition of the Lord proceeds through wonder.

Gradually, the slight differences register — He is not quite the husband, only His mirror-image. The queens come forward, delighted and surprised, to meet Pradyumna and His jewel-wife. Recognition of the Lord is calibrated, not instantaneous; even those who know His body must compare to be sure.

• asita-apāṅgī — the one with black eye-corners
  Compound: asita (black) + apāṅgī (whose eye-corners, fem.). A standard feminine-beauty epithet, but here loaded — the dark of her eyes will fill with tears the moment the next verb fires. Iconography prepares emotion.
• valgu-bhāṣinī — whose speech is sweet
  Compound: valgu (charming, melodious) + bhāṣinī (speaker, fem.). Rukmiṇī's voice is gentle even in distress — the queen's restraint, as opposed to Devakī's open lamentation. Different mothers, different rasa-voices.
• sva-sutam-naṣṭam — her son, who was lost
  Compound: sva (her own) + sutam (son) + naṣṭam (lost). Three syllables that re-instate the relationship before her conscious mind decides. The grammar performs the recognition.
• sneha-snuta-payaḥ-dharā — whose breasts became wet from affection
  Compound: sneha (affection) + snuta (flowing) + payaḥ (milk) + dharā (containing, fem.). The exact lexical family used of Yaśodā at 10.9.3. The Bhāgavatam announces: vātsalya does not differ between Vraja and Dvārakā in its bodily signature; only in its rasa-grade.

Rukmiṇī, dark-eyed and sweet-voiced, sees Pradyumna and her breasts moisten with milk — the body remembers the son before the mind names Him. Vātsalya-rasa is somatic; the mother's flesh speaks first. Bhakti, when it is real, is felt in the organs of the body, not only the chambers of the heart.

• nara-vaidūryaḥ — gem among men
  Compound: nara (man) + vaidūryaḥ (cat's-eye gem, beryl). A precious stone famed for its inner shifting light. Rukmiṇī's metaphor — among men, He is the stone you cannot stop turning in your hand.
• kamala-īkṣaṇaḥ — lotus-eyed
  Compound: kamala (lotus) + īkṣaṇaḥ (eyed). The exact epithet she uses of her own husband (cf. her letter at 10.52.37, kamala-naya). She is unknowingly applying her husband's title to her son — the verse names the resemblance before she does.
• jaṭhare — in the womb
  Locative of jaṭhara (belly, womb). Rukmiṇī asks: in whose jaṭhara was He carried? The same word she will ask about herself in v.34. The chapter's grammar prepares the self-recognition.
• labdhā — obtained, won
  Past participle of √labh, fem. Rukmiṇī asks how He 'obtained' His wife — the standard verb for marriage-by-pursuit in the Bhāgavatam. She will soon learn the answer is exactly her own marriage-story in miniature.

Rukmiṇī begins to wonder aloud: 'Who is this lotus-eyed jewel? Whose son, by what mother carried, who is this wife of his?' She asks four questions and answers none — the recognition is hovering, not yet landed. Bhakti, even at the Lakṣmī-level, must work through inquiry.

• ātmajaḥ — her own son, born of self
  Compound: ātma (self) + jaḥ (born from). The child born from one's own body — not adopted, not by surrogate. Rukmiṇī claims a specific biological tie, and the next clause grants the hypothesis.
• sūtikā-gṛhāt — from the maternity room
  Compound: sūtikā (new mother) + gṛhāt (from the house, abl.). The sūtikā-gṛha is the postnatal chamber — Vedic dharma's most protected interior, and the very place Śambara breached. The detail reactivates the original outrage.
• tulya-vayaḥ-rūpaḥ — equal in age and appearance
  Compound: tulya (equal) + vayaḥ (age) + rūpaḥ (form). Rukmiṇī's hypothesis is precise on two axes simultaneously — age and look. Both must match for the hypothesis to hold; both do.
• jīvati-kutracit — is living somewhere
  Verb + indefinite locative: jīvati (lives) + kutracit (somewhere, anywhere). She cannot yet say 'here'; the indefiniteness preserves the hypothesis. Bhakti often advances by what it cannot quite say.

'If my lost son still lives, He would be of just this age, just this look.' Rukmiṇī ventures the hypothesis — the bhakta sometimes can only approach the Lord through 'if.' The conditional clause is the door bhakti uses when the body is still ahead of the mind.

• sārūpyam — the same form
  Abstract noun from sa-rūpa (with-the-same-form). Sārūpya is also one of the five mukti-types (sālokya, sāmīpya, sārūpya, sārṣṭi, sāyujya) — to have the Lord's form. Rukmiṇī observes Pradyumna in a state Vaiṣṇavas pray for.
• śārṅga-dhanvanaḥ — of the wielder of the Śārṅga bow
  Compound: śārṅga (Kṛṣṇa's bow) + dhanvanaḥ (of the wielder, gen.). One of Kṛṣṇa's standard epithets. Rukmiṇī invokes Kṛṣṇa by His warrior-title here, not His husband-title — she is comparing son to father at the level of public identity.
• ākṛtyā-avayavaiḥ — in form and limbs
  Compound: ākṛtyā (by form, instr.) + avayavaiḥ (by limbs). The pair distinguishes overall silhouette from individual parts. Rukmiṇī checks both global and local correspondence.
• svara-hāsa-avalokanaiḥ — in voice, smile, and glance
  Compound: svara (voice-tone) + hāsa (smile) + avalokanaiḥ (glances, instr. pl.). Three dynamic features — what the body does in real time. She has compared not only the still iconography but the motion.

'How is it He so resembles my Lord — in form, limb, gait, voice, smile-glance?' Rukmiṇī catalogs the resemblance feature by feature, the way an iconographer would catalog a deity-form. The body's grammar of bodily detail is how she advances toward recognition.

• garbhe-dhṛtaḥ — carried in the womb
  Compound: garbhe (in the womb, loc.) + dhṛtaḥ (carried, past part.). Same vocabulary as v.31 (jaṭhare … dhṛtaḥ) — she has moved from third-person inquiry ('by what woman') to first-person assertion ('by me'). The grammar tracks her dawning certainty.
• prītiḥ-adhikā — great affection
  Compound phrase: prītiḥ (love) + adhikā (excessive, surpassing). Rukmiṇī's love for Pradyumna exceeds normal affection-for-a-handsome-stranger; she treats the excess itself as evidence. Vātsalya-rasa is its own attestation.
• vāmaḥ — my left arm trembles
  Compound: vāmaḥ (left, masc.) + sphurati (trembles, throbs) + bhujaḥ (arm). In śāstric omen-lore, the left arm trembling in a woman signals an auspicious meeting or reunion. The Bhāgavatam respects this folk-Vedic semiotic — Rukmiṇī's body is reading the moment.

'Surely He must be the same child I bore — my affection is great, my left arm quivers.' Rukmiṇī treats her body's signs as data: a quivering left arm in śāstric semiotics is auspicious-recognition for a woman. The bhakta's body, when correctly tuned, is itself a śāstra to read.

• mīmāṁsamānāyām — as she was conjecturing
  Present participle of √man (intensive desiderative — to consider deeply), fem. loc. absolute. The same root as Mīmāṁsā, the school of Vedic exegesis. The Bhāgavatam quietly compares Rukmiṇī's inferential reasoning to scriptural exegesis — she is the household's mīmāṁsaka.
• devakī-sutaḥ — the son of Devakī
  Compound: devakī (Devakī) + sutaḥ (son). Kṛṣṇa is named here through His Dvārakā-mother — His other-mother — at the moment when His own mother-by-līlā arrives. Two motherhoods converging in one verse.
• devakī-ānakadundubhyām — with Devakī and Vasudeva
  Dvandva: devakī + ānakadundubhi (Vasudeva, drum-named). Vasudeva's epithet ānakadundubhi commemorates the celestial drums that sounded at his birth (Canto 10.1). The Bhāgavatam never tires of these multi-layered names.
• uttamaḥ-ślokaḥ — the one praised by the best verses, Lord Kṛṣṇa
  Compound: uttamaḥ (highest) + ślokaḥ (verse, praise). One of Kṛṣṇa's signature titles in the Bhāgavatam — He is the One whose praises constitute the highest poetry. The narrator names Him at His full theological altitude.

While Rukmiṇī is still conjecturing, Kṛṣṇa Himself arrives with Vasudeva and Devakī — the parents of Bhagavān walk in with Bhagavān. The chapter assembles the whole Yādava elder-cluster on stage; the recognition is about to be officially witnessed.

• vijñāta-arthaḥ — who fully understood the matter
  Compound: vijñāta (fully known) + arthaḥ (meaning, situation). Bhagavān is sarva-jña; the Bhāgavatam never lets us forget this even in His moments of seeming-not-knowing. His silence here is choice, not ignorance.
• tūṣṇīm-āsa — remained silent
  Adverb + verb: tūṣṇīm (silently) + āsa (was). Bhagavān's tūṣṇīm is a positive act — a held silence, not an absence of speech. The Bhāgavatam at 1.7.6 also uses this exact construction of Vyāsa absorbed in bhakti.
• janārdanaḥ — Janārdana, Kṛṣṇa
  Etymology: jana (people) + ardana (one who removes / agitates) — the Lord who removes distress from the people. The title is chosen for this verse because what Nārada is about to narrate is precisely the removal of His own household's distress.
• śambara-āharaṇa-ādikam — beginning with Śambara's kidnapping
  Compound: śambara (Śambara) + āharaṇa (the kidnapping) + ādikam (beginning with). Nārada starts from the original wrong. Gauḍīya narrative principle: the telling must include the wound from which the recovery proceeds; no glossing over to the happy ending.

Janārdana knows everything yet stays silent — and Nārada explains, beginning from Śambara's kidnapping. Bhagavān deliberately yields the telling to His devotee. The Lord could narrate His own son's story; instead He listens to it from Nārada's mouth. The līlā includes the role of the human storyteller.

• mahat-āścaryam — the great wonder
  Compound: mahat (great) + āścaryam (marvel). The chapter's last invocation of adbhuta-rasa — opened at v.5, closed here. The Bhāgavatam frames the entire episode as one extended marvel-event.
• kṛṣṇa-antaḥ-pura-yoṣitaḥ — the women of Kṛṣṇa's inner palace
  Compound: kṛṣṇa (Kṛṣṇa) + antaḥ (inner) + pura (palace) + yoṣitaḥ (women, fem. pl.). The 16,108 queens and their women — the most populous antaḥ-pura in the Bhāgavatam. They greet collectively, as a household.
• abhyanandan — they greeted, they rejoiced over
  Imperfect of abhi-√nand (to greet with joy, to praise). The same verb used of the devas at v.25; the inner-household joy matches the cosmic joy in vocabulary.
• naṣṭam-mṛtam-iva-āgatam — lost and returned as if from the dead
  Compound: naṣṭam (lost) + mṛtam (dead) + iva (as if) + āgatam (returned). Four words that compress the chapter's arc. The Bhāgavatam refuses to soften: the women treat Pradyumna's loss as a death and His return as a resurrection.