Devanagari
शिर: पतितमालोक्य राजद्वारे सकुण्डलम् ।
किमिदं कस्य वा वक्त्रमिति संशिशिरे जना: ॥ २५ ॥
Verse text
śiraḥ patitam ālokya
rāja-dvāre sa-kuṇḍalam
kim idaṁ kasya vā vaktram
iti saṁśiśire janāḥ
Synonyms
śiraḥ
—
the head
;
patitam
—
fallen
;
ālokya
—
seeing
;
rāja
—
dvāre — at the gate of the royal palace
;
sa
—
kuṇḍalam — with earrings
;
kim
—
what
;
idam
—
is this
;
kasya
—
whose
;
vā
—
or
;
vaktram
—
head
;
iti
—
thus
;
saṁśiśire
—
expressed doubt
;
janāḥ
—
the people .
Translation
Seeing a head decorated with earrings lying at the gate of the royal palace, the people present were puzzled. Some of them asked, “What is this?” and others said, “It is a head, but whose is it?”
Translation (Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura)
Seeing a head decorated with earrings lying at the gate of the royal palace, the people present were puzzled. Some of them asked, "What is this?" and others said, "It is a head, but whose is it?"
KB 10.66.25
When the head of the King of Kāśī was thrown through the city gate, people gathered and were astonished to see that wonderful thing. When they found out that there were earrings on it, they could understand that it was someone’s head. They conjectured as to whose head it might be. Some thought it was Kṛṣṇa’s head because Kṛṣṇa was the enemy of Kāśīrāja, and they calculated that the King of Kāśī might have thrown Kṛṣṇa’s head into the city so that the people might take pleasure in the enemy’s having been killed.
Purport
Śrīla Prabhupāda writes as follows: “When the head of the King of Kāśī was thrown through the city gate, people gathered and were astonished to see that wonderful thing. When they found out that there were earrings on it, they could understand that it was someone’s head. They conjectured as to whose head it might be. Some thought it was Kṛṣṇa’s head because Kṛṣṇa was the enemy of Kāśirāja, and they calculated that the King of Kāśī might have thrown Kṛṣṇa’s head into the city so that the people might take pleasure in the enemy’s having been killed. But it was finally detected that the head was not Kṛṣṇa’s but that of Kāśirāja himself.”
Purport (Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura)
First they asked "What is that?" and then they asked "Whose head is it?"
Purport (Jiva Goswami)
“Is this his head or someone else’s?” The ordinary people speculated in many ways.