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ŚB 4.28.11

Devanagari

भयनाम्नोऽग्रजो भ्राता प्रज्वार: प्रत्युपस्थित: ।
ददाह तां पुरीं कृत्‍स्‍नां भ्रातु: प्रियचिकीर्षया ॥ ११ ॥

Text

bhaya-nāmno ’grajo bhrātā
prajvāraḥ pratyupasthitaḥ
dadāha tāṁ purīṁ kṛtsnāṁ
bhrātuḥ priya-cikīrṣayā

Synonyms

bhaya-nāmnaḥ — of Bhaya (Fear); agra-jaḥ — elder; bhrātā — brother; prajvāraḥ — named Prajvāra; pratyupasthitaḥ — being present there; dadāha — set fire; tām — to that; purīm — city; kṛtsnām — wholesale; bhrātuḥ — his brother; priya-cikīrṣayā — in order to please.

Translation

Under the circumstances, the elder brother of Yavana-rāja, known as Prajvāra, set fire to the city to please his younger brother, whose other name is fear itself.

Purport

According to the Vedic system, a dead body is set on fire, but before death there is another fire, or fever, which is called prajvāra, or viṣṇu-jvāra. Medical science verifies that when one’s temperature is raised to 107 degrees, a man immediately dies. This prajvāra, or high fever, at the last stage of life places the living entity in the midst of a blazing fire.