Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 10.79.19-21
Blended reading (Sanskrit + English inline)
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śiva-kṣetram
—
the place sacred to Lord Śiva
Compound: Śiva + kṣetra. Gokarṇa is Śiva's place — yet Balarāma, who is Saṅkarṣaṇa-Viṣṇu, visits and honors it. Gauḍīyas read this as the model relationship: Viṣṇu and Śiva are not rivals; Viṣṇu honors Śiva, and Śiva is the greatest Vaiṣṇava (vaiṣṇavānāṁ yathā śambhuḥ).
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dhūrjaṭeḥ
—
of Lord Śiva
Genitive of Dhūrjaṭi, 'one whose burden is the matted locks' — an epithet of Śiva referring to his containment of the Gaṅgā in his jaṭā. The name foregrounds Śiva's tapasvī aspect, the receiver of the heavenly river — the form fit for Balarāma to honor on tīrtha-yātrā.
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daṇḍakam
—
the Daṇḍaka forest
Accusative of Daṇḍaka. The vast forest of the Deccan plateau where Rāma's vana-vāsa took place. The name itself comes from daṇḍa (rod, chastisement) — historically the place of asura-daṇḍa, now of Balarāma's tīrtha-yātrā.
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prabhāsam punaḥ āgamat
—
He came again to Prabhāsa
Phrase: Prabhāsa + punaḥ (again) + āgamat (He came). The word punaḥ is structural — the chapter began with Balarāma at Naimiṣa, and now after a continent's circle He arrives at Prabhāsa. The Bhāgavatam's reader knows what Prabhāsa will eventually host; the geography foreshadows.
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māhiṣmatī purī
—
the city of Māhiṣmatī
Compound: Māhiṣmatī (the city) + purī (city). The ancient capital on the Narmadā (Revā) — Kārtavīrya Arjuna's seat, later destroyed by Paraśurāma (Bhāgavatam 9.15). Balarāma walks through the city whose lord his earlier ancestor of the Yadu line ruled.
Going through Kerala, Trigarta he came to Gokarṇa since he was full of all powers (bhagavān). At all these places he performed bathing and other rites. He went to these places quickly (balaḥ) without fatigue. He quickly came to Dandaka.
Kerala, Trigarta, Gokarṇa, the island-Devī, Śūrpāraka, the Tāpī, the Payoṣṇī, the Nirvindhyā, the Daṇḍaka forest, the Revā, Māhiṣmatī, Manu-tīrtha — and at the end of the line, prabhāsam punaḥ āgamat: He came back to Prabhāsa. The pilgrimage curves home. Prabhāsa is where Kṛṣṇa will eventually conclude His earthly līlā; that the chapter returns there is a quiet structural note about the elder brother completing His circuit on the soil that closes the Yadu story.
The Daṇḍaka forest is where Lord Rāmacandra spent the bulk of His fourteen-year exile with Sītā and Lakṣmaṇa, and where He killed Khara, Dūṣaṇa and fourteen thousand rākṣasas (Rāmāyaṇa, Araṇya-kāṇḍa). It is the same forest where Śūrpaṇakhā's nose was cut and where Sītā was abducted by Rāvaṇa.
When Balarāma 'enters the Daṇḍaka forest' the geographical line is again a līlā-line — Saṅkarṣaṇa walks the soil where Lakṣmaṇa once walked. Gauḍīyas hold Lakṣmaṇa-tattva and Balarāma-tattva as the same Saṅkarṣaṇa-Viṣṇu in successive avatāra-postures.
Prabhāsa-kṣetra, on the Saurāṣṭra coast, is the tīrtha where eventually the Yadu dynasty will quarrel, drink, and destroy itself, and where Kṛṣṇa Himself will conclude His manifest pastimes (Bhāgavatam Canto 11). By the time the Bhāgavatam is composed, Prabhāsa is already the closing punctuation of Kṛṣṇa-līlā.
The chapter's curve — Naimiṣa, the long pilgrimage, then prabhāsam punaḥ āgamat — quietly rehearses the larger Yadu arc. Balarāma returns to the place that will receive Him at the end. The pilgrim's geography is also the līlā's arithmetic.
My note
Source: vedabase.io