Text 31
tāvan nandādayo gopā
mathurāyā vrajaṁ gatāḥ
vilokya pūtanā-dehaṁ
babhūvur ativismitāḥ
tāvat — in the meantime; nanda-ādayaḥ — headed by Nanda Mahārāja; gopāḥ — all the cowherd men; mathurāyāḥ — from Mathurā; vrajam — to Vṛndāvana; gatāḥ — came back; vilokya — when they saw; pūtanā-deham — the gigantic body of Pūtanā lying dead; babhūvuḥ — became; ati — very much; vismitāḥ — struck with wonder.
Meanwhile, all the cowherd men, headed by Nanda Mahārāja, returned from Mathurā, and when they saw on the way the gigantic body of Pūtanā lying dead, they were struck with great wonder.
Nanda Mahārāja’s wonder may be understood in various ways. First of all, the cowherd men had never before seen such a gigantic body in Vṛndāvana, and therefore they were struck with wonder. Then they began to consider where such a body had come from, whether it had dropped from the sky, or whether, by some mistake or by the power of some mystic yoginī, they had come to some place other than Vṛndāvana. They could not actually guess what had happened, and therefore they were struck with wonder.