śiraḥ patitam ālokya
rāja-dvāre sa-kuṇḍalam
kim idaḿ kasya vā vaktram
iti saḿśiśire janāḥ
sirah -- the head; patitam -- fallen; alokya -- seeing; raja-dvare -- at the gate of the royal palace; sa-kundalam -- with earrings; kim -- what; idam -- is this; kasya -- whose; va -- or; vaktram -- head; iti -- thus; samsisire -- expressed doubt; janah -- the people.
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?"
Srila Prabhupada writes as follows: "When the head of the King of Kasi 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 Krishna's head because Krishna was the enemy of Kasiraja, and they calculated that the King of Kasi might have thrown Krishna'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 Krishna's but that of Kasiraja himself. "
