• 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.