SB 4.28.11 · Srimad-Bhagavatam

Devanagari

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

Verse 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.

Translation (Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura)

Fear’s elder brother Prajvāra arrived and burned the city completely, desiring to please his brother. Pravāraḥ is Viṣṇuvjāra.

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.