10.76 · The Battle Between Śālva and the Vṛṣṇis

• krīḍā — for playing
  Krīḍā signals līlā — sport, not necessity. The Lord's killing of Śālva is not the labour of a finite hero but the play of Bhagavān; this single word frames the entire chapter as transcendental pastime, not mundane war.
• nara-śarīrasya — of Him whose body is humanlike
  Contiguous join (nara + śarīrasya). Gauḍīyas read this through Brahma-saṁhitā 5.39: Kṛṣṇa's form is sac-cid-ānanda even when it appears nara-like. The 'humanlikeness' is the very door by which rasa with devotees becomes possible.
• karma adbhutam — wonderful deed
  Contiguous join. The Bhāgavatam repeatedly catalogues Kṛṣṇa's karmāṇy adbhutāni (cf. SB 10.1, 10.14). Adbhuta-rasa — wonder — is the secondary rasa that fringes every Vraja and Dvārakā pastime; Śuka pauses to mark this episode as belonging to that catalogue.
• saubha-patiḥ — the lord of Saubha (Śālva)
  Compound from synonyms (saubha + patiḥ). Śālva is named not by his own name but by his sky-city — a deliberate Bhāgavata signal that he is property of his vehicle, not its master. The asuric pattern: identification with one's hardware.
• śṛṇu — please hear
  Imperative of √śru — the very root that names śravaṇam, the first of the nine limbs of bhakti (SB 7.5.23). Śuka begins not with 'see' or 'understand' but with 'hear': Bhāgavata-rasa enters through the ear.

• NRM SB 10-76-01-33
  Her Grace Narayani Mataji· English
• Revati Raman Pr SB 10-76-01-05 Telugu Translation - 2014-01-15 ISKCON Tirupati
  His Grace Revati Raman Prabhu· 2014-01-15· Telugu
• Bhanu Sw SB 10-76-01-26 - However powerfully and amazingly transforms matter cannot even touch Spiritual Objects - ISKCON Chennai
  His Holiness Bhanu Swami· English

Like a king who fights wearing the dress of an ordinary soldier so that the soldiers around him may share the field, Kṛṣṇa accepts a humanlike body (nara-śarīra) so that His killing of Saubha's master becomes a wondrous deed (karma adbhutam) audible to ears like ours.

• śiśupāla-sakhaḥ — a friend of Śiśupāla's
  Compound from synonyms. In Gauḍīya hermeneutics sakhya defines a person more than birth does: by being Śiśupāla's friend, Śālva inherits Śiśupāla's offense. The verse is silently teaching the doctrine of sat-saṅga and asat-saṅga.
• rukmiṇī-udvāhe — at Rukmiṇī's wedding
  Compound from synonyms. Rukmiṇī is Lakṣmī herself (SB 10.52.39 commentary, Prabhupāda); the wedding from which Śālva was driven was not a mundane elopement but Lakṣmī returning to Nārāyaṇa. To stand against it is to stand against Lakṣmī-Nārāyaṇa.
• yadubhiḥ — by the Yadus
  Instrumental plural of Yadu. The Yadu dynasty is Kṛṣṇa's own clan — Bhagavān has personally chosen them as His parikara. Defeat by the Yadus is defeat by an extension of the Lord; Śālva fails to read it that way.
• nirjitaḥ — defeated
  Past participle of ni + √ji. The same verbal stem that gives jaya — victory. Śālva has tasted parājaya at the hands of Kṛṣṇa's men and chooses revenge instead of śaraṇa; the chapter will trace that fork to its end.
• jarāsandha-ādayaḥ — Jarāsandha and others
  Compound from synonyms. Jarāsandha is the archetypal Kṛṣṇa-vairī of Canto 10 — killed by Bhīma at Kṛṣṇa's direction (SB 10.72). Naming his company here marks Śālva as belonging to the line of asura-allies who must eventually be cleared from the earth.

Like a moth whose first scorching at the lamp's edge only sharpens its appetite for the flame, Śālva — once defeated at Rukmiṇī's wedding — returns now with greater force. Saṅga with Śiśupāla has made his envy structural.

• pratijñām — a promise
  Accusative of pratijñā — formal vow before witnesses. In dharma-śāstra a pratijñā binds the kṣatriya; here it binds Śālva only to his death. Vows untethered from dharma are ropes that hang the swearer.
• ayādavām — devoid of Yādavas
  Negative compound (a + yādava). Since Kṛṣṇa Himself is a Yādava (yadu-pati), to make the earth ayādava is to make it akṛṣṇa — an explicit declaration of war against Bhagavān, however ignorantly framed.
• kṣmām — the earth
  Accusative of kṣmā — Bhū-devī, who in SB 10.1.17 had prayed to Brahmā precisely for relief from such kings. Śālva imagines himself the earth's saviour while being one of the burdens the earth begged to be freed from.
• pauruṣam — prowess
  From puruṣa. Pauruṣa is manly valor; the Bhāgavatam consistently contrasts asuric pauruṣa (self-derived, soon-broken) with the daiva pauruṣa of devotees who fight knowing Bhagavān is the doer (cf. Arjuna at Kurukṣetra).
• paśyata — just see
  Imperative plural of √paś. The asura always demands an audience: see my power. The devotee instead asks the Lord to see him (paśya mām, Gītā 11.7). The grammar of the eye reverses across the asura/devotee line.

Like a man who, stung by a wasp, vows aloud to empty the air of insects — the vow announces only the depth of his sting. Śālva's promise to make the earth ayādava is the cry of a wound, not the speech of a hero.

• mūḍhaḥ — the fool
  From √muh — to be deluded. Śuka's editorial label. The Bhāgavatam calls anyone mūḍha who undergoes immense effort without first asking who Bhagavān is (cf. Gītā 7.15, na māṁ duṣkṛtino mūḍhāḥ).
• paśu-patim — Śiva, the protector of animallike men
  Compound from synonyms. Paśu literally means animal — by extension the bound jīva. Prabhupāda's gloss reads paśu-pati as guardian of those still in animal consciousness: the right deity for one who wants only a weapon, not Bhagavān Himself.
• āradhayām āsa — worshiped
  Periphrastic perfect of √rādh. Same verbal root from which ārādhana and rādhā arise: the action of pleasing. Here the action is correctly performed but pointed at the wrong end — kāmya-rādhana, worship for a private wish, not nirupādhi-bhakti.
• pāṁśu — of dust
  A handful of dust per day. The Bhāgavatam's austerity-asuras choose extreme physical reduction, but the Gauḍīya reading is sharp: tapas without bhakti, however terrifying, is bhukti or mukti aimed asuric — not the road to Bhagavān.
• muṣṭim — a handful
  Accusative of muṣṭi. The same word that names the boxing-match grip of Cāṇūra and Muṣṭika in SB 10.43–44 — the asuras Kṛṣṇa killed. Even the dust Śālva clenches foreshadows the asura's clenched, fruitless effort.

Like a man who plants a tree in poisoned soil and waters it daily expecting sweet fruit, Śālva subjects himself to year-long austerity, but the goal — destruction of Kṛṣṇa's people — is the poison; no length of tapas can purify a fruit aimed at Bhagavān's devotees.

• āśu-toṣaḥ — he who is quickly pleased
  Compound from synonyms (āśu + toṣaḥ). A standard epithet of Śiva — the easy-to-please. The Bhāgavatam uses it ironically here: Śiva's very generosity becomes the asura's noose. Prabhupāda repeatedly warns devotees not to approach āśu-toṣa devas for material boons.
• umā-patiḥ — the master of Umā
  Compound from synonyms. Naming Śiva by his relation to Umā (Pārvatī) gentles the verse — even when about to grant a destructive boon, Śiva is a husband, a householder. The Bhāgavatam never reduces him to mere boon-machine.
• saṁvatsara — of a year
  A full solar year of tapas. In dharma-śāstra a saṁvatsara is the ritually complete cycle. Śālva pays the full price; even so, what he buys is his own death — proof that ritual completeness without right object is empty.
• śaraṇam — for shelter
  Same word that anchors the great śaraṇāgati verses — Gītā 18.66 (mām ekaṁ śaraṇaṁ vraja) and SB 11.5.41. Śālva goes to śaraṇa, but to the wrong feet and for the wrong reason. The grammar of surrender is empty when the heart is full of vengeance.
• vareṇa — with a benediction
  Instrumental of vara — boon. Gauḍīyas distinguish vara (material boon) from prema (the gift of bhakti). Śiva offers vara; Kṛṣṇa to His devotees offers prema. Śālva, asked to choose, will choose accordingly.

Like a wealthy patron known for instant generosity who slows down only when a guest's request is ruinous, Lord Umāpati delays a full year — the delay itself is mercy, an interval in which the asura might still drop his vow.

• abhedyam — indestructible
  a- + bhid (to break) + -ya. Śālva engineers safety from every species — yet leaves out one category: the Lord Himself. The Bhāgavatam will exploit precisely this gap. No abheda is possible against Bhagavān; only śaraṇa is.
• kāma-gam — traveling at will
  Compound from synonyms (kāma + gam). Kāma here means 'wish' — the vehicle moves wherever desire points. Gauḍīyas read kāma-driven motion as the asura's geometry; the devotee's geometry is bhāva-driven (rādhā-bhāva, Mahāprabhu's mood).
• vavre — chose
  Perfect of √vṛ — to choose, to select. Same root as varaḥ (boon) and vara (groom). What Śālva chooses defines him: he marries his vow to a vehicle rather than dissolving the vow in śaraṇa.
• vṛṣṇi — for the Vṛṣṇis
  Kṛṣṇa's clan-name through Vṛṣṇi the ancestor. The asura specifies his target by name — he is not abstractly anti-divine but personally anti-Vṛṣṇi, which is to say anti-parikara of Kṛṣṇa.
• bhīṣaṇam — terrifying
  From √bhī (to fear). The asuric weapon is calibrated to one effect — fear. The Bhāgavatam's whole point in narrating it is to show that fear cannot touch one whose heart rests in Kṛṣṇa (cf. SB 1.7.10, ātmārāmāś ca munayaḥ).

• Prabha Vishnu Pr SB 10-76-06-33 - Do not imitate Krishna%27s Activities - 2008-01-15 ISKCON Melbourne
  His Grace Pariksit Prabhu· 2008-01-15· English
• BDDS SB 10-76-06 - 2025-03-23 ISKCON Vrindavan
  His Holiness Bhakti Dhira Damodar Swami· 2025-03-23· English

Like a man who, granted any treasure, asks only for armor against shame, Śālva narrows infinity to a flying fortress. The boon-giver's open hand becomes a measure of the asker's small heart.

• giri-śa — by Lord Śiva
  Compound from synonyms (giri + śa). Śiva as the lord of Mount Kailāsa — a name that locates him within creation, beneath Bhagavān. Even his 'tathā iti' is a delegated word; the real iti must come from Viṣṇu.
• para-puram-jayaḥ — who conquers the cities of the enemy
  Contiguous join from synonyms (para + puram + jayaḥ). Maya's epithet — the conqueror of enemy cities. Bhāgavata irony: the city-conqueror builds the city that Kṛṣṇa will conquer. The architect's own title rebounds on his patron.
• saubham — named Saubha
  From su + bhū — 'well-being.' The flying city's name claims auspiciousness; the verse will steadily empty the claim. Names in the Bhāgavatam mean what bhakti makes them mean: Saubha in Kṛṣṇa-virodha becomes durbhāgya.
• ayaḥ-mayam — made of iron
  Contiguous join (ayaḥ + mayam). Iron — heavy, dark, sub-lustrous. Gauḍīyas read material kāma-vehicles as ayaḥ-maya: heavy with karma, however fast they fly. The mantra-mūrti of Kṛṣṇa is hema-maya (golden); the asura's craft is iron.
• mayaḥ — Maya Dānava
  The asuric architect — namesake of māyā in its illusory sense. The Bhāgavatam quietly puns: Maya builds māyā-mayam saubham (cf. verse 21). The architect is the illusion is the city; one mistake-cluster, three names.

• Padaseva Pr SB 10-76-07 Oriya
  His Grace Padaseva Prabhu· Oriya

Like the master architect of a hostile court who builds dazzling halls for a doomed king, Maya Dānava fashions Saubha — wondrous iron in the sky, yet only a longer corridor toward the inevitable meeting with Kṛṣṇa.

• tamaḥ-dhāma — abode of darkness
  Contiguous join (tamaḥ + dhāma). Tamas — the guṇa of inertia and ignorance — is named as the very atmosphere inside Saubha. Bhāgavata cosmology: vehicles built from envy carry their own night with them, however high they fly.
• durāsadam — unapproachable
  duṣ + ā + √sad. Hard to approach. Gauḍīyas note that the same word describes Kṛṣṇa's abode in 11.5; māyā mimics the vocabulary of dhāma. The asuric counterfeit always borrows the syntax of the sacred.
• dvāravatīm — to Dvārakā
  Accusative of Dvāravatī — 'she of many gates.' Kṛṣṇa's island-city, Lakṣmī's dwelling. To attack Dvārakā is structurally identical to attacking Vaikuṇṭha; Gauḍīyas read aiśvarya-Dvārakā as Vaikuṇṭha-in-līlā.
• vairam — the enmity
  Accusative of vaira. In Gauḍīya rasa-vicāra, vaira is a śānta-tinged rasa — but vaira-bhakti (like that of Kaṁsa or Śiśupāla) is recognized as a back-door route. Śālva is in vaira without the secret current that liberated Kaṁsa; mere hate without constant smaraṇa of Kṛṣṇa as person is barren.
• smaran — remembering
  Present participle of √smṛ — the same root as smaraṇa, one of bhakti's nine limbs. The Bhāgavatam darkly notes that even asuras 'remember' Kṛṣṇa. The difference: their smaraṇa is vaira-smṛti, the devotee's is prema-smṛti.

Like a man who finally obtains the sword he had sharpened for years and walks straight toward the one city it can never cut, Śālva rushes Saubha to Dvārakā — but Dvārakā is the abode of Lakṣmī-Nārāyaṇa; no iron, however dark, can pierce that gate.

• nirudhya — besieging
  Gerund of ni + √rudh (to obstruct). The same root behind nirodha — yogic restraint. The asura's nirodha is a siege; the yogī's is of the senses. Same grammar, opposite directions.
• vimāna-agryāt — from the best of airships
  Contiguous join (vimāna + agryāt). Vimāna is the Vedic flying chariot — devas have them, asuras imitate. Agrya means foremost; even the foremost asuric craft is, in Bhāgavata measure, less than a devotee's bare feet on Vraja's dust.
• śastra-vṛṣṭayaḥ — torrents of weapons
  Contiguous join (śastra + vṛṣṭayaḥ). Vṛṣṭi literally means rain — the asura's offering to Dvārakā is a perverse rain, mirroring the prema-vṛṣṭi that devotees pray Kṛṣṇa will rain upon them (cf. Caitanya-caritāmṛta's prema-megha imagery).
• cakravātaḥ — a whirlwind
  From cakra + vāta. A cyclone. Prabhupāda's commentary reads Śālva's whirlwind as māyic show-business — calculated terror against a city protected by the Lord's own sudarśana-cakra. Cakravāta against cakra-pāṇi: the wind cannot win.
• purīm — the city
  Accusative of purī. The same word used for Vaikuṇṭha and for Kṛṣṇa's heart. The Bhāgavatam often reads attack on the Lord's city as the asura's confession that the Lord has a city — that He is personal, located, available.
• rajasā — with dust
  Instrumental of rajas. Pun: rajas the substance (dust) and rajas the guṇa (passion). The whole asuric assault is rajas-blanketed — covering the directions, the way passion covers the cit-svarūpa of the jīva.

Like hailstorm and locust together falling on a garden the King has built for His queens, Śālva's downpour from Saubha tries to ruin Dvārakā — yet the Lord of the garden has not yet stirred; what falls is the asura's whole arsenal at once, a single throw of every die he owns.

• ardyamānā — tormented
  Passive participle of √ard. The very verb the Bhāgavatam uses for the earth burdened by adharmic kings (SB 10.1). Dvārakā's torment is the same category Bhū-devī prayed against — but staged so that the Lord's son may answer.
• saubhena — by the airplane Saubha
  Instrumental of Saubha. Personification by grammar: the vehicle, not Śālva, is named as the agent of torment. In Gauḍīya reading, the asura has so identified with his weapon that the weapon takes his place in the verse.
• śam — peace
  Vedic noun — peace, well-being. The same śam that opens the Upaniṣadic śānti-mantras. Bhāgavata diagnosis: śam in a city follows the city's contact with the Lord; when the contact is dimmed, even Dvārakā loses śam temporarily.
• tri-pureṇa — by the three aerial cities of the demons
  Contiguous join (tri + pureṇa). Reference to the Tripura myth. The Bhāgavatam often anchors current pastimes in earlier ones; this micro-comparison teaches that Kṛṣṇa-līlā recapitulates and surpasses Śiva-līlā.
• kṛṣṇasya nagarī — Lord Kṛṣṇa's city
  Contiguous join (kṛṣṇasya + nagarī). Possessive — the city is Kṛṣṇa's. Prabhupāda repeatedly insists Dvārakā is non-different from her Lord; the asura attacks not 'a place' but a limb of Bhagavān.

Like a household where the children cannot sleep because of the noise outside the gate, Dvārakā has no śam — even Kṛṣṇa's own city, when His direct hand is withheld, feels what its citizens would otherwise be spared. The disturbance is permitted to set the stage for Pradyumna's lustre.

• pradyumnaḥ — Pradyumna
  Pra + √dyut — 'shining forth.' Kṛṣṇa's first son, an expansion of Vāsudeva according to the Pāñcarātra catur-vyūha (Vāsudeva, Saṅkarṣaṇa, Pradyumna, Aniruddha). When Pradyumna fights, an aṁśa of Bhagavān fights.
• bhagavān — the Lord
  Applied here to Pradyumna. The Bhāgavatam reserves bhagavān for full Godhood, but extends it to Pradyumna because of his catur-vyūha status. Important Gauḍīya note: Bhagavān-hood is shareable through expansion, never through merging.
• mā bhaiṣṭa — do not fear
  Imperative + negative particle. The signature reassurance in Bhāgavata-rakṣaṇa moments — Kṛṣṇa says it to Yaśodā (10.7), to the gopas at Govardhana (10.25). In a Vraja-rasa key, mā bhaiṣṭa is Bhagavān's first kindness.
• ratha-ārūḍhaḥ — mounted on His chariot
  Contiguous join (ratha + ārūḍhaḥ). Echoes Arjuna ratha-sthaḥ in Gītā 1. In Kaṭha Upaniṣad 1.3.3 the body is the chariot and ātmā the rider; here Pradyumna takes ratha as the warrior, but Gauḍīyas read every Bhāgavata chariot through that Upaniṣadic frame.
• mahā-yaśāḥ — whose glory is immense
  Contiguous join (mahā + yaśāḥ). Yaśas — fame that survives the fame-holder. Pradyumna's yaśas is not earned by today's deed; the verse calls him mahā-yaśas as a stable epithet — fame already established by his Śambara-killing past.

Like the eldest son who steps to the door when his Father is occupied within, Pradyumna mounts His chariot and tells the citizens 'do not fear' — the same mā bhaiṣṭa that Kṛṣṇa breathes everywhere, now spoken by His son for the first time on the battlefield of Dvārakā.

• sātyakiḥ — Sātyaki
  Yuyudhāna, Kṛṣṇa's foremost Vṛṣṇi chariot-warrior — disciple of Arjuna in dhanur-veda. His presence here braids the Kurukṣetra and Dvārakā lineages of devotion-in-arms.
• sāmbaḥ — Sāmba
  Kṛṣṇa's son by Jāmbavatī. Will later, in SB 11.1, be the unwitting agent of the Yadu-vaṁśa's curse. The Bhāgavatam quietly places brothers Pradyumna and Sāmba in the same battle, foreshadowing both the family's glory and its end.
• akrūraḥ — Akrūra
  A-krūra — 'the non-cruel.' The mahā-bhāgavata sent by Kaṁsa to fetch Kṛṣṇa from Vraja, whose chariot-ride and Yamunā-darśana are some of Canto 10's most poignant moments (10.38–39). His name here is a small reassurance that the field is not all kṣatriya hardness.
• iṣv-āsāḥ — archers
  Contiguous join (iṣv + āsāḥ) from synonyms. Literally 'arrow-mouthed' — those whose word is loosed as an arrow. Vedic kṣatriya idiom. In Gauḍīya rasa-vicāra, the same image is inverted: a kavi's iṣu is his śloka.
• ratha-ibha-aśva-padātibhiḥ — by chariots, elephants, horses and foot-soldiers
  Contiguous join (ratha + ibha + aśva + padātibhiḥ) — the classical catur-aṅga, the four limbs of the army. The Bhāgavatam preserves the full śāstric vocabulary; Yadu warfare is fully traditional, even when its hero is Bhagavān's son.
• daṁśitāḥ — wearing armor
  Past participle of √daṁś (to bite, sting) — armor that 'bites' the body, holding it close. Gauḍīyas read daṁśita devotees as those whom Kṛṣṇa Himself girds — the truer kavaca is His name.

Like the master's chosen retinue moving out with him when he goes to receive a guest, the ten chief Yadu warriors ride out — not because Pradyumna needs them, but because Bhagavān shares His glory: the chariot of His son is escorted by the lineage of His friends.

• tumulam — tumultuous
  Adjective for sound and disturbance; the same word the Mahābhārata uses for Kurukṣetra's noise. Bhāgavata war-vocabulary is borrowed directly from Vyāsa's larger frame.
• loma-harṣaṇam — making bodily hair stand on end
  Contiguous join (loma + harṣaṇam) from synonyms. In aesthetic theory loma-harṣa is the bodily mark of rasa — fear or wonder. In bhakti-rasa-śāstra, romāñca is one of the eight sāttvika-bhāvas. The same physiological sign serves either adbhuta or bhayānaka rasa.
• asurāṇām — of the demons
  Genitive plural of asura. Śuka quietly names Śālva's side asura — not as insult but as classification. Devotees ride out under bhāgavata vocabulary even before swords cross.
• vibudhaiḥ — with the demigods
  Instrumental of vibudha — 'highly awake.' The Yadus are likened to vibudhas. Gauḍīya doctrine: those in Kṛṣṇa's parikara are super-awake, while asuras are super-asleep, however violently they move.
• pravavṛte — began
  Perfect of pra + √vṛt. Vṛtti is mode-of-being; pravṛtti is engagement, going-forth. Gauḍīyas distinguish pravṛtti-mārga (the path of engagement, even in war) from nivṛtti-mārga (withdrawal). The Yadus fight pravṛtti-mārga sanctioned by Kṛṣṇa.

Like the deva-asura battles by which the Bhāgavatam measures every later war, the Yadu-Śālva clash earns the same simile. Bhagavān's people are devas-on-earth; the asura's army is the same old shadow in new iron.

• māyāḥ — the magic illusions
  Plural of māyā. Gauḍīya reading: māyā is real-but-not-final; she serves Bhagavān by both veiling and unveiling. Asuric māyā (Maya Dānava's) is māyā untethered from Bhagavān's purpose, hence brittle to bhakta-astras.
• divya-astraiḥ — with divine weapons
  Contiguous join (divya + astraiḥ). Divya — not earthly; given by devas or by Bhagavān, activated by mantra. Pradyumna inherits these from Kṛṣṇa's catur-vyūha-tejas, not from his hands.
• rukmiṇī-sutaḥ — the son of Rukmiṇī (Pradyumna)
  Compound from synonyms. The Bhāgavatam keeps naming Pradyumna through his mother — emphasizing rasa, not heroism alone. Rukmiṇī is Lakṣmī; her son's strength comes from being her son and Kṛṣṇa's son.
• naiśam tamaḥ — darkness of the night
  Contiguous join (naiśam + tamaḥ). The Upaniṣadic image — tamasoma jyotir gamaya. Bhāgavatam puts it inside a battle: the war is, beneath its surface, a tamas-to-jyoti movement.
• uṣṇa-guḥ — whose rays are warm (the sun)
  Contiguous join (uṣṇa + guḥ). Guḥ — rays. Sūrya is repeatedly used as an image of Bhagavān (Gītā 15.12). Pradyumna here is the Bhagavān-sun's son acting solar; the family resemblance is exact.

Like the morning sun whose first rays dissolve the night that seemed solid only minutes before, Pradyumna's divya-astras dispel Śālva's māyā in an instant. The simile is the chapter's keystone: bhakti-tejas vs māyic darkness.

• vivyādha — He shot
  Perfect of vi + √vyadh (to pierce). The same root as ā-vedha — initiation by piercing. Gauḍīya guru-paramparā speaks of mantra-vedha; Pradyumna's arrows have, narratively, a piercing-to-awaken function.
• svarṇa-puṅkhaiḥ — with gold-shafted
  Contiguous join (svarṇa + puṅkhaiḥ). Gold is Lakṣmī's metal; Kṛṣṇa's son's arrows carry Lakṣmī on their tails. The weapon's metallurgy itself testifies to the warrior's lineage.
• ayaḥ-mukhaiḥ — with iron heads
  Contiguous join (ayaḥ + mukhaiḥ). Iron at the head, gold on the shaft — the arrow itself is a model of the kṣatriya: hard at the point of contact, lustrous at the source of release.
• sannata-parvabhiḥ — with smooth joints
  Contiguous join (sannata + parvabhiḥ). The joints of an arrow's reed-stem must be polished or it flies untrue. Bhāgavata craftsmen of war honor detail; the verse pauses to admire the workmanship.
• dhvajinī-pālam — the commander-in-chief
  Contiguous join (dhvajinī + pālam) from synonyms. Dhvajinī — 'she who has a banner,' the army. Pradyumna strikes the banner-keeper with twenty-five, the king with a hundred — śāstric proportionality of arrows to rank.
• vāhanāni — the carriers
  Neuter plural of vāhana — mounts. Even the horses and elephants receive only three arrows each. The Bhāgavatam in passing teaches the kṣatriya-dharma of mercy toward non-combatant animals.

• Dravida Pr SB 10-76-18-27 - 2015-10-07 ISKCON Alachua
  His Grace Dravida Prabhu· 2015-10-07· English

Like an expert physician whose every dose is calibrated — twenty-five drops here, a hundred there, three for the carriers — Pradyumna's arrows are not a flood but a precise prescription. The asura's army is treated, not slaughtered.

• adbhutam — amazing
  Vibhāva of adbhuta-rasa (wonder). The Bhāgavatam returns to adbhuta — the chapter's framing rasa, named again in verse 1 — to mark this as a līlā-moment, not a bare military datum.
• karma — feat
  Same word that names every Bhāgavata 'wonderful deed' of Bhagavān (cf. SB 10.14, karmāṇy adbhutāni). Pradyumna's karma is rated by the same yardstick because he is Kṛṣṇa's expansion.
• mahā-ātmanaḥ — of the great personality
  Contiguous join (mahā + ātmanaḥ). Mahātmā in Gītā 9.13 is the devotee under Kṛṣṇa's divine prakṛti. Pradyumna is mahātmā in the strict sense — a soul within Bhagavān's intimate retinue.
• pūjayām āsuḥ — honored
  Periphrastic perfect of √pūj. Pūjā is normally directed to the deity; here both armies pūjā the warrior. Gauḍīyas read this as a faint preview of the future when both 'sides' acknowledge Bhagavān.
• sva-para-sainikāḥ — the soldiers of His own side and of the enemy
  Contiguous join (sva + para + sainikāḥ). The Bhāgavatam compresses sva and para — own and other — into one phrase, and then dissolves the line by their shared awe. Rasa erases the dvandva for a moment.

Like a banquet at which even rival guests cannot help applauding the cook, the soldiers of both sides praise Pradyumna's feat — bhakti-prabhāva spills over the line dividing the armies. Even the asura's men have a moment of darśana.

• bahu-rūpa — with many forms
  Contiguous join (bahu + rūpa). Bhagavān is also bahu-rūpa (Brahma-saṁhitā 5.39). But Bhagavān's bahu-rūpa is acintya-bhedābheda — non-different even when many. Saubha's bahu-rūpa is mere reflection, illusion not reality.
• eka-rūpam — with one form
  Contiguous join (eka + rūpam). The dual movement many/one is the Upaniṣadic eka-aneka tension. In bhakti, the resolution is Bhagavān; here it is the trick of an asura.
• māyā-mayam — magical
  Contiguous join (māyā + mayam) from synonyms. Suffix -maya — 'made of.' Saubha is made-of-māyā; jīvas in saṁsāra ride māyā-maya vehicles of their own — bodies, identities, opinions — all eventually dissolved by Bhagavān's astra.
• durvibhāvyam — impossible to find
  duṣ + vi + √bhū. Hard to make-present-to-mind. The Bhāgavatam uses the same root family for the Lord Himself when described from the outside (Gītā 11.52, su-durdarśam); the asura claims this vocabulary illegitimately.
• maya-kṛtam — made by Maya Dānava
  Contiguous join (maya + kṛtam). Authorship matters. Whatever an asura crafts inherits the asura's intentionality. Gauḍīyas read all kāma-crafted things as carrying their craftsman; only Kṛṣṇa-prasāda-crafted things carry Kṛṣṇa.

Like a fog that splits into a hundred fogs and a moment later is one fog and a moment later is no fog at all, Saubha multiplies, unifies, vanishes. The asuric vehicle imitates Bhagavān's vaibhava-vilāsa (multiple simultaneous forms) — but in māyā, not in cit.

• alāta-cakra — a whirling firebrand
  Contiguous join (alāta + cakra) from synonyms. Classical Indian image for illusory continuity — used in Māṇḍūkya-kārikā and the Yoga-vāsiṣṭha. Bhāgavatam appropriates it here for a flying asuric city: saṁsāra wearing iron.
• bhrāmyat — wandering
  Present participle of √bhram — to whirl, to be deluded. Same root as bhrama (error). The asura's vehicle and the asura's mind share one verb: both whirl.
• duravasthitam — never remaining in one place
  duḥ + ava + √sthā. Hard to stay-put. The whole asuric career is duravasthita; only the devotee's heart rests in Kṛṣṇa's lotus feet — su-avasthita.
• vyomni — in the sky
  Locative of vyoman. The Upaniṣads use vyoman for the supreme space; Bhāgavatam often distinguishes bhautika-vyoman (material sky) from cid-vyoman (Vaikuṇṭha). Saubha rides bhautika-vyoman only.
• kvacit — at one moment
  Indefinite adverb of location/time. Repeated four times in this short verse — the very rhythm enacts Saubha's restlessness. Bhāgavata prosody often performs its subject.

Like a torch whirled in the dark — alāta-cakra — that draws a circle which is no real circle but only the persistence of one fire's motion, Saubha appears as multiple cities at once. The Vedānta uses the very same image (alāta-cakra-vat) for saṁsāra itself: motion mistaken for substance.

• yatra yatra — wherever
  Doubled relative — 'in each place where.' The same construction Gītā 18.78 will use (yatra yogeśvaraḥ kṛṣṇo). The Bhāgavatam's syntax of pursuit and of devotion share a grammar.
• upalakṣyeta — would appear
  Optative passive of upa + √lakṣ. Lakṣya is the target; upalakṣya is to-be-noticed. The asura strives to be unseen, the devotee strives to see — same root, opposite directions.
• sa-saubhaḥ — with Saubha
  Contiguous join (sa + saubhaḥ) from synonyms. The prefix sa-, 'together-with,' binds Śālva to Saubha grammatically — he never appears without his vehicle. He has become a compound.
• sātvata — of the Yadus
  Sātvatas — the Yadu sub-clan from whom the Pāñcarātra sātvata-saṁhitā derives its name. Naming the Yadus sātvata here links Dvārakā warfare to Pāñcarātra deity-worship: same lineage, different vibhūtis.
• yūtha-pāḥ — the chiefs of the army
  Contiguous join (yūtha + pāḥ) from synonyms. Yūtha is herd or troop; pā is protector. Used for Indra in the Ṛg-veda. Yadu yūtha-pās are pā-yūtha by Kṛṣṇa's authorization — sub-protectors under the great Pā.

Like archers shooting at lightning — wherever the flash appears, an arrow follows — the Yadu chiefs adapt to Saubha's flicker. Devotees in battle hold no fixed target except the Lord's wish; that flexibility is itself a form of śaraṇāgati.

• amuhyat — became bewildered
  Imperfect of √muh. Same root as mūḍha (verse 4). The asura who was already mūḍha at the start of the chapter now becomes amuhyat in the middle — moha intensifies under bhakta-pressure rather than dissolving.
• agni-arka-saṁsparśaiḥ — whose contact was like fire and the sun
  Contiguous join (agni + arka + saṁsparśaiḥ). Two of the Bhāgavata's stock images for Bhagavān — agni and sūrya. Pradyumna's arrows literally carry the divine taijasa: fire to the touch, sun to the eye.
• āśī-viṣa — of the venom of a snake
  Contiguous join (āśī + viṣa). Āśī-viṣa — 'fanged-poison,' a venomous serpent. Recall Kāliya in SB 10.16: serpents serve the Lord. Even snake-venom is, in Bhāgavata economy, a tool Bhagavān can wield.
• durāsadaiḥ — intolerable
  duḥ + ā + √sad (same word used for Saubha itself in verse 8). The asura who built durāsada now meets durāsada — what he weaponized is now weaponized against him. Karmic mirroring at the level of vocabulary.
• pura-anīkaḥ — whose aerial city and army
  Contiguous join (pura + anīkaḥ). Anīka — army. Pura — city. Śālva is named here by his two extensions; the verse refuses to grant him a self apart from his hardware.

Like a thief who feels the householder's stick for the first time and realizes the courtyard has a master after all, Śālva is bewildered when the Yadu arrows actually find him. Asuric confidence collapses at first solid contact with bhakta-tejas.

• vṛṣṇi-vīrāḥ — the heroes of the Vṛṣṇi clan
  Contiguous join (vṛṣṇi + vīrāḥ) from synonyms. Vīra in Gauḍīya rasa-vicāra is one of the secondary rasas — vīra-rasa includes the warrior's resolve. Bhakta-vīra is the special category: vīrya from bhakti, not from ego.
• na tatyajuḥ — they did not abandon
  Negation of √tyaj — to abandon. The same verbal root behind tyāga and sannyāsa, here negated. These devotees' tyāga is of fear and self-concern, not of post and duty.
• loka-dvaya — two worlds
  Contiguous join (loka + dvaya). This world and the next. Gauḍīyas note: Vaiṣṇavas seek a third — Goloka — beyond loka-dvaya. The Vṛṣṇi vīras in this verse aim at iha-loka and svarga-loka; the higher motivation will be Pradyumna's own.
• jigīṣavaḥ — wishing to conquer
  Desiderative of √ji. Jigīṣā — the wish to win. In Gītā 2.37, Kṛṣṇa promises Arjuna either svarga-jaya or pṛthivī-jaya; the same kṣatriya horizon is operative here, though Pradyumna will exceed it.
• arditāḥ — pained
  Past participle of √ard — same root as ardyamānā (verse 12, of the city). Vocabulary echo: the city's pain (verse 12) is now distributed across her defenders. Dvārakā suffers limb-by-limb.

Like sentries who stand at the gate even as arrows fall because the King they serve has set the post, the Vṛṣṇi heroes do not abandon their assigned places. Sva-dharma even under enemy rain — the Gītā 2.31 mood living in Dvārakā's parikara.

• śālva-amātyaḥ — Śālva's minister
  Contiguous join (śālva + amātyaḥ). Amātya — counselor, minister. The asura-king's amātya is asura too; the company of one's amātyas defines one's path. Bhāgavata diagnosis: choose your amātyas as you would choose your sat-saṅga.
• dyumān — named Dyumān
  From √dyut — to shine. Ironically a 'shining one' on the asura side, mirroring Pradyumna's own pra-dyu-. The Bhāgavatam loves these mirror-names: the same root, different ātmā.
• gadayā — with his club
  Instrumental of gadā. Gadā is Viṣṇu's own weapon — but in the wrong hand it becomes adhārmic. Kṛṣṇa's own brother Gada (verse 14) is named for it; the same noun crosses the line between divine ornament and asuric tool.
• maurvyā — made of carbonized iron
  From murva — bowstring, or a hard fibrous material. The synonym translates the word as carbonized iron — the hardest available metal of the era. Dyumān strikes with the era's strongest weapon; even so, the next verses will show that strongest material is no match for Bhagavān-aṁśa.
• vyanadat — roared
  Imperfect of vi + √nad. The same root as nāda. Asuric nāda is the inverse of bhakti-nāda (the holy name); both shake the air, but only one purifies it.

Like a wounded asura-lieutenant who, instead of falling back, runs his black-iron club straight at the prince — Dyumān answers Pradyumna's earlier arrows with his whole rage at once. The asura's last roar is loudest before silence.

• dāruka-ātmajaḥ — the son of Dāruka
  Contiguous join (dāruka + ātmajaḥ) from synonyms. Ātmaja — 'born from the self/soul' — son. Dāruka is Kṛṣṇa's sūta; his ātmaja inherits the sūta-dharma. Family is, in Bhāgavata logic, prior training for sevā.
• dharma-vit — the expert knower of religious duty
  Contiguous join (dharma + vit). The Bhāgavatam names him dharma-vit even while his action will be questioned by Pradyumna — to teach that two dharma-vits can disagree on a single situation; the higher dharma is decided by Bhagavān's mood.
• apovāha — removed
  Perfect of apa + ud + √vah. Vah is the root that gives vāhana (carrier) and vivāha (marriage — leading-away). The driver's act of carrying his master away is grammatically a kind of vivāha — a removal-to-safety.
• arim-damam — the subduer of enemies
  Contiguous join (arim + damam). A standard epic epithet. The Bhāgavatam preserves it here for the moment of irony: the arim-dama is being apovāha-ed from the battlefield, the subduer is briefly carried.
• vakṣaḥ-sthalam — whose chest
  Contiguous join (vakṣaḥ + sthalam). The vakṣaḥ-sthala of Bhagavān is Lakṣmī's seat (Brahma-saṁhitā 5.27). Pradyumna's chest is Lakṣmī-line tissue; the driver's panic at its 'shattering' is the panic of a man who feared he had lost Lakṣmī's own son.

Like a faithful steward who, seeing his master collapse, carries him from the courtyard back into the house even before the master can object, the son of Dāruka removes Pradyumna from the field. Bhakti-driven service sometimes mistakes the master's strength for his peril — but the heart is right.

• labdha-saṁjñaḥ — having regained consciousness
  Contiguous join (labdha + saṁjñaḥ) from synonyms. Saṁjñā — full awareness; same root as Saṁjaya, the Mahābhārata narrator who 'sees' clearly. Pradyumna's first act on returning to saṁjñā is to command, not to thank.
• kārṣṇiḥ — the son of Lord Kṛṣṇa
  Patronymic from Kṛṣṇa. The Bhāgavatam now names him kārṣṇi rather than pradyumnaḥ — emphasizing that what he is about to say is the son of Kṛṣṇa speaking. His reputation is Kṛṣṇa's reputation.
• aho — ah
  Interjection — surprise, dismay, lament. The Bhāgavatam reserves aho for moments when a character cannot suppress emotion. Pradyumna's saṁjñā has returned with grief, not gratitude.
• asādhu — improper
  a- + sādhu. Sādhu is the good, the right, the saintly. Asādhu is the negation. Pradyumna labels his rescue asādhu in the technical sense — outside sādhu-dharma — even though it preserved his life.
• apasarpaṇam — being taken away
  apa + √sṛp (to creep, to slip). 'Slipping away.' The very verb implies stealth, retreat — antithetical to kṣatriya frontal-presence. The grammar diagnoses the shame.

Like a prince who recovers his breath in the carriage that has just spirited him from danger and orders it turned back immediately, Pradyumna's first conscious word is rebuke — not for the assault, but for the rescue. Bhakta-vīra cares less about being struck than about being seen leaving the field.

• yadūnām kule — in the family of the Yadus
  Contiguous join (yadūnām + kule). Kula — clan, lineage. Gauḍīyas read Yadu-kula as Bhagavān's chosen vaṁśa, parallel to the Kuru-vaṁśa through which dharma was preserved. Stain to the Yadu kula is felt as stain to Kṛṣṇa's address.
• vicyutaḥ — who abandoned
  Past participle of vi + √cyut — to fall away. Same root as cyuti, falling. Pradyumna names battlefield-departure cyuti — a soteriological word in disguise; for the kṣatriya, leaving the field is its own kind of falling.
• klība-cittena — whose mentality is like that of a eunuch
  Contiguous join (klība + cittena). Klība — impotent, eunuch. The same word Kṛṣṇa uses to Arjuna in Gītā 2.3 (klaibyaṁ mā sma gamaḥ pārtha). Pradyumna throws his father's Gītā-word at his own driver — the family vocabulary recycles.
• kilbiṣāt — stain
  Ablative of kilbiṣa — sin, taint. In dharma-śāstra kilbiṣa is the impurity that requires prāyaścitta. Pradyumna names what his rescue has produced: a kilbiṣa-mark on the Yadu name. The driver's act is, in his view, a small adharma even though kindly.
• śrūyate — is heard of
  Passive of √śru. The same root as śravaṇa. Pradyumna's worry is precisely that the wrong thing about him will be heard. Śravaṇa is the medium of fame as well as of bhakti — both flow through the ear.

Like a name passed down a long family of bell-clear ringers, suddenly fearing the soot of one dull stroke — Pradyumna grieves the stain to the Yadu line. The honor of one's vaṁśa weighs more than the body of one warrior.

• pitarau — with My fathers
  Dual of pitṛ — 'the two fathers.' Rāma (Balarāma) is Pradyumna's uncle but elder enough to be addressed as a father — and in Gauḍīya theology Balarāma is the ādi-guru, while Kṛṣṇa is the iṣṭa. Both fathers must be faced.
• rāma-keśavau — Balarāma and Kṛṣṇa
  Compound from synonyms. Rāma — Balarāma; Keśava — Kṛṣṇa, He of beautiful hair (also slayer of the demon Keśī). The dual form binds the two brothers as one ālambana for Pradyumna's bhāva.
• abhisaṅgamya — meeting
  Gerund of abhi + sam + √gam. Coming-toward-and-together-with. Used in Sanskrit for both formal audiences and intimate meetings; here both senses operate — formal Yadu-court report and intimate father-son encounter.
• apakrāntaḥ — fled
  Past participle of apa + √kram. Stepping-away. Same prefix as apasarpaṇam (verse 28) — Pradyumna lingers on the cluster of 'away-ness' words; each is a different way of naming the same scratch on his honor.
• kṣamam — fitting
  Adjective from √kṣam (to endure, to be patient). Kṣamā in Gauḍīya doctrine is the devotee's first ornament (cf. SB 1.18.21). Pradyumna asks what kṣama-word he can speak — what answer his fathers will be able to bear.

Like a son who has nothing to say at His father's threshold after a misadventure, Pradyumna rehearses the meeting with Rāma and Keśava and finds no word that fits. To carry a clean answer back to one's spiritual father is itself a kṣatra-tapas.

• bhrātṛ-jāmayaḥ — My brothers' wives
  Contiguous join (bhrātṛ + jāmayaḥ). Jāmi — kinswoman by marriage. The women named here are Sāmba's, Cārudeṣṇa's, Akrūra's wives — the Yadu antaḥpura. In Vraja, Kṛṣṇa is teased by gopīs; in Dvārakā, His son will be teased by sisters-in-law.
• klaibyam — unmanliness
  Noun-form of klība (cf. verse 29). Pradyumna circles the same word a second time — repetition that betrays anxiety. The Bhāgavatam's prosody allows the speaker's wound to show through his vocabulary.
• vīra — O hero
  Vocative of vīra. The sisters-in-law (Pradyumna imagines) will address him by precisely the title he feels he has forfeited. Sanskrit ridicule's sharpest tool: the right address with the wrong tone.
• katham katham — how, how
  Doubled interrogative — mocking insistence. The Bhāgavatam's rhetorical use of doubling: katham katham conveys taunting laughter, not earnest inquiry. The grammar paints the imagined scene already happening.
• mṛdhe — in battle
  Locative of mṛdh — battle, conflict. Vedic word for war. Pradyumna's imagined teasing locates the offense exactly: in mṛdh he turned away, and women who never go to mṛdh will name the turning.

• Bhanu Sw SB 10-76-31-77 - 30 Contradictory Views in Scriptures about Lord%27s Nature and the way to understand it - ISKCON Chennai
  His Holiness Bhanu Swami· English

Like a young man more afraid of his sisters-in-law's laughter than of any enemy's club, Pradyumna imagines the women of Dvārakā at His return. The Bhāgavatam captures the kṣatriya's deepest dread — domestic ridicule outranks battlefield wound.

• sūtaḥ — a driver
  Nominative of sūta. The Mahābhārata is itself called Sūta-saṁhitā in some traditions, because reciters are sūta-class. The Bhāgavatam too is told by Sūta to the sages. The word carries narrative-authority as well as charioteer-duty.
• rathinam — the master of the chariot
  Accusative of rathin. In Kaṭha Upaniṣad 1.3.3 ātmā is the rathin and buddhi the sārathi. Here both are persons, but Gauḍīya reading retains the Upaniṣadic echo: the sūta must guard the rathin's ātma-presence on the field.
• rakṣet — should protect
  Optative of √rakṣ. The dharma-imperative. Rakṣaṇa is also the Lord's own promise (Gītā 9.22, yoga-kṣemaṁ vahāmy aham). Rakṣa-dharma flows through every relation in the parikara, downward and upward.
• āyuḥ-man — O long-lived one
  Contiguous join (āyuḥ + man) from synonyms. Vocative — 'one possessed of long life.' A respectful address by a junior. The driver's deference is structurally proper even as he disagrees.
• vibho — O my Lord
  Vocative of vibhu — the all-pervading one. The driver addresses Pradyumna as vibhu — recognition that Kṛṣṇa's son carries Bhagavān-status. Even when rebuked, the devotee never lowers his honorifics.
• dharmam vijānatā — by one who properly understood dharma
  Contiguous join (dharmam + vijānatā). Present participle of vi + √jñā — to discern. Dharma-vijñāna, not mere dharma-jñāna, is the practical knowing that acts. The driver claims this; Pradyumna will eventually accept the claim.

Like the wise steward of a household who explains, calmly, that he locked the door precisely because the master had fallen asleep — the driver answers without defensiveness. Rathī and sūta have a mutual rakṣaṇa-dharma; he has merely followed half of it.

• viditvā — knowing
  Gerund of √vid. The same root as Veda and vidyā. The driver's act is grounded in vidyā — he knew the rule and applied it. The Bhāgavatam consistently endorses śāstric vidyā over emotional reaction even on the battlefield.
• apovāhitaḥ — removed
  Past participle of apa + ud + √vah — same verb as in verse 27 (apovāha), now in the past participle directed at Pradyumna. The driver names his own act in Pradyumna's own grammar — accepting authorship cleanly.
• upasṛṣṭaḥ — hurt
  Past participle of upa + √sṛj — overtaken-by. Bhāgavata vocabulary for being caught by a misfortune. The driver's diagnostic — he believed Pradyumna upasṛṣṭa by Dyumān's club — explains his reflex without excusing it.
• mūrcchitaḥ — unconscious
  Past participle of √mūrch — to faint, to lose sense. Same root as mūrti — though here in its negative sense. Pradyumna had lost his presence-of-form (mūrti-jñāna) momentarily; the sūta acted on visible evidence.
• pareṇa — by the enemy
  Instrumental of para. Same word that, in Vaiṣṇava theology, names the Supreme (paraṁ brahma, Gītā 8.3). Here it names the enemy. The word's polarity depends entirely on context — and on who the speaker has chosen as his para.

Like a doctor who explains, after the patient is safely back in the chamber, that he moved him because the bleeding looked mortal — the driver closes his defense not by argument but by simple description. He saw, he judged, he acted; that is the whole of the sūta-dharma.