• mahiṣyaḥ — his queens
  Plural of mahiṣī (chief queen). The first to mourn — Bhāgavatic protocol of women's lament (cf. SB 1.10.10 where the Yadu women weep when Kṛṣṇa departs, and SB 1.13 where Gāndhārī weeps over the Kuru sons). Vyāsa sees grief as foremost a woman's word.
• hā hatāḥ — alas, (we are) killed
  Phrase: hā (alas) + hatāḥ (killed). Idiomatic lamentation. The bereaved identify with the dead — 'we are killed' — because the king's life was the people's life. Gauḍīyas read this collective subjectivity as the everyday version of the gopīs' identification with Kṛṣṇa in His absence.
• nātha nātha — O master, master
  Vocative doubled: 'O lord, O lord.' Nātha = protector. The same word the Vaiṣṇavas reserve for Kṛṣṇa (Gopīnātha, Jagannātha). Here it is spilled on a fallen mortal king — Gauḍīyas read the pathos as a quiet correction: nāthatva belongs to Bhagavān alone; mortal nāthas all fall.
• prārudan — they cried out loud
  Imperfect plural of pra-√rud (to weep forth). Audible, communal lament. The whole city's grief becomes verbal. Vyāsa lets the sound of weeping fill the verse before he proceeds to Sudakṣiṇa's vow in the next.
• bāndhavāḥ — other relatives
  Plural of bāndhava (kinsman, friend by binding). From the same root as bandhana (verse 24's 'bondage'). Gauḍīyas catch the verbal echo: while Pauṇḍraka's bondage was shattered by his death, the Kāśī family's bandhus weep — they are bound, he was unbound. The chapter is a study in bondage's geometry.

• PSarasvati Sw SB 10-66-26-28 - 2024-11-11 ISKCON Vrindavan
  His Holiness Prabodhananda Sarasvati Swami· 2024-11-11· English

When a banner falls in a city, every dependent under that banner mourns at once — the queens, the sons, the marketwomen, the night-watchman. Kāśī's grief over Kāśirāja's head is the Bhāgavata's reminder that politics is not abstract; one head's removal grieves a thousand chests.