sakhyuḥ so 'pacitiṁ kurvan
vānaro rāṣṭra-viplavam
pura-grāmākarān ghoṣān
adahad vahnim utsṛjan
sakhyuḥ - of his friend (Naraka, whom Lord Kṛṣṇa had killed); saḥ - he; apacitim - repayment of his debt; kurvan - doing; vānaraḥ - the ape; rāṣṭra - of the kingdom; viplavam - creating great disturbance; pura - the cities; grāma - villages; ākarān - and mines; ghoṣān - cowherd communities; adahat - he burned; vahnim - fire; utsṛjan - spreading about.
To avenge the death of his friend [Naraka], the ape Dvivida ravaged the land, setting fires that burned cities, villages, mines and cowherd dwellings.
Kṛṣṇa had killed Dvivida’s friend Naraka, and to retaliate the ape intended to destroy Lord Kṛṣṇa’s flourishing kingdom. In Kṛṣṇa Śrīla Prabhupāda writes: “His first business was to set fires in villages, towns and industrial and mining places, as well as in the residential quarters of the mercantile men who were busy dairy farming and protecting cows.”
