• 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.