• sarva - astra - śastra - tattva - jñāḥ — expert knowers of all weapons-science
  Sarva (all) + astra (projectile weapons) + śastra (hand-held weapons) + tattva (essence) + jña (knower). Five-word compound establishing the suitors' competence. The verse loads up qualifications precisely so their failure can be felt.
• upādhyāyāḥ — their teachers
  Upādhyāya — preceptor, instructor. The kings come with their gurus. Not even teacher-backed expertise will pierce the hidden fish — Gauḍīya implication: technical śāstric knowledge without bhakti cannot reach the Lord.
• sahasraśaḥ — by the thousands
  Adverbial — 'thousand-wise'. Quantity emphasized: the contest was no obscure provincial affair. The whole kṣatriya world arrived.
• bhū - pāḥ — earth-protectors (kings)
  Bhū (earth) + pā (protector). The standard Sanskrit term for kings. Gauḍīya texts note the irony: bhū-pas come to protect their own claims to the bride, but only Bhagavān is finally the bhū-pa of all the earth, and the bride was always His.
• puram — city
  Pura — city, fortress. Bṛhatsena's city becomes for these days the assembly-ground of every confident archer in the land. The word will be picked up at verse 36 (purīm — His own city, Dvārakā) — the failed suitors came to Bṛhatsena's pura; the bride was finally taken to Kṛṣṇa's purī.

When news of an impossible contest spreads, every archer in the land believes himself capable; thousands converged on Bṛhatsena's city, each with his teacher in tow. The verse is the moment before failure becomes visible: the room is full of confident men. The same scene replays in every age in different garments — confident souls converging on a target Bhagavān has hidden for His own bride.