• balena saha — with Balarāma
  Bala — strength itself personified. Gauḍīyas read Balarāma as ādi-guru, the first expansion of Kṛṣṇa as Saṅkarṣaṇa; here He confronts the asura ministers because the guru-tattva is what dismantles the asura-vṛtti.
• kumbhāṇḍa-kūpakarṇābhyām — with Kumbhāṇḍa and Kūpakarṇa
  Bāṇa's ministers — pot-belly and pit-ears. The Bhāgavatam names them with grotesque body-compounds to mark their tāmasa-quality; their bodies are the visible distortion of their inner state.
• sāmbasya — Sāmba's
  Kṛṣṇa's son by Jāmbavatī. He fights Bāṇa's son — the lineages mirror each other. Sāmba's later story (SB 11) carries cautionary weight; here he is still in his glorious phase, fighting at his father's flank.
• sātyakeḥ — Sātyaki's
  Yuyudhāna — Kṛṣṇa's dear sakha and disciple of Arjuna in archery. The verse pairs him with the chief asura because sakhya-bhakti is the rasa that does not flinch from confrontation on the Lord's behalf.

When the master's army arrives at a fort, each lieutenant is given his own opponent and the master keeps the head of the household for Himself. Balarāma to Kumbhāṇḍa and Kūpakarṇa, Sāmba to Bāṇa's son, Sātyaki to Bāṇa — and Kṛṣṇa, of course, takes Śiva.