FolioCorpusBhagavad-gītā

Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 10.66.25

శిర: పతితమాలోక్య రాజద్వారే సకుణ్డలమ్ । కిమిదం కస్య వా వక్త్రమితి సంశిశిరే జనా: ॥ ౨౫ ॥
śiraḥ patitam ālokya
[shirah patitam aalokya]
rāja-dvāre sa-kuṇḍalam
[raaja-dvaare sa-kundalam]
kim idaṁ kasya vā vaktram
[kim idam kasya vaa vaktram]
iti saṁśiśire janāḥ
[iti samshishire janaah]
śiraḥ — the head patitam — fallen ālokya — seeing rāja - dvāre — at the gate of the royal palace sa - kuṇḍalam — with earrings kim — what idam — is this kasya — whose vā — or vaktram — head iti — thus saṁśiśire — expressed doubt janāḥ — the people .
Blended reading (Sanskrit + English inline)
śiraḥ patitam ālokya
śiraḥ
the head
patitam
fallen
ālokya
seeing
rāja-dvāre sa-kuṇḍalam
rāja - dvāre
at the gate of the royal palace
sa - kuṇḍalam
with earrings
kim idaṁ kasya vā vaktram
kim
what
idam
is this
kasya
whose
vā
or
vaktram
head
iti saṁśiśire janāḥ
iti
thus
saṁśiśire
expressed doubt
janāḥ
the people .
  • patitam — fallen
    Past participle of √pat (to fall). The same root that gives patti (foot-soldier) and patrin (arrow) above — falling is the chapter's vocabulary. Bodies, heads, lotus-cups, all fall; only the Lord remains upright.
  • sa-kuṇḍalam — with earrings
    Compound: sa (with) + kuṇḍala (earring). The Bhāgavata's detail is exact: the earrings still hang from the severed head, signaling royalty. The juxtaposition of ornament and corpse is the chapter's recurrent figure (cf. verse 3's child-king in a paper crown).
  • rāja-dvāre — at the gate of the royal palace
    Compound locative: rāja (king) + dvāra (gate). The site of public judgment in classical Indian polity; petitioners came to the rāja-dvāra. The Lord's verdict on Kāśirāja is read at the very gate where his judgments used to be issued.
  • ālokya — seeing
    Absolutive of ā-√lok (to look upon). The crowd looks at what they cannot believe. Gauḍīyas note: seeing-without-understanding is the condition of māyā; only the Bhāgavata's narrator (and hence the reader) understands what the citizens of Kāśī see.
  • saṁśiśire — they expressed doubt
    Perfect of sam-√śi (to be in confusion). A verb of collective bewilderment. The whole city falls into saṁśaya — and the doubt itself is the truth: their king is not what he was, and neither is the order he upheld.
Seeing a head decorated with earrings lying at the gate of the royal palace, the people present were puzzled. Some of them asked, “What is this?” and others said, “It is a head, but whose is it?”

Śrīla Prabhupāda writes as follows: “When the head of the King of Kāśī was thrown through the city gate, people gathered and were astonished to see that wonderful thing. When they found out that there were earrings on it, they could understand that it was someone’s head. They conjectured as to whose head it might be. Some thought it was Kṛṣṇa’s head because Kṛṣṇa was the enemy of Kāśirāja, and they calculated that the King of Kāśī might have thrown Kṛṣṇa’s head into the city so that the people might take pleasure in the enemy’s having been killed. But it was finally detected that the head was not Kṛṣṇa’s but that of Kāśirāja himself.”

— A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda
Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura Gauḍīya
Translation
Seeing a head decorated with earrings lying at the gate of the royal palace, the people present were puzzled. Some of them asked, "What is this?" and others said, "It is a head, but whose is it?"
Commentary

First they asked "What is that?" and then they asked "Whose head is it?"

Jīva Gosvāmī Gauḍīya
Commentary

“Is this his head or someone else’s?” The ordinary people speculated in many ways.

Concepts
Jiva

A jewel falls from the sky into the city square; people stoop and gasp — 'whose stone is this?' — before recognizing it as the crown they had bowed to yesterday. The head with earrings at Kāśī's palace gate is exactly such a jewel, dropped by the wind of the Lord's arrow.

📝 My note

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