Bhaktivedanta VedaBase: Śrīmad Bhāgavatam 10.16.5

vipruṣmatā viṣadormi-

mārutenābhimarśitāḥ

mriyante tīra-gā yasya

prāṇinaḥ sthira-jańgamāḥ

SYNONYMS

vipruṭ-matā — containing droplets of the water; viṣa-da — poisonous; ūrmi — (having touched) the waves; mārutena — by the wind; abhimarśitāḥ — contacted; mriyante — would die; tīra-gāḥ — present upon the shore; yasya — of which; prāṇinaḥ — all living entities; sthira-jańgamāḥ — both nonmoving and moving.

TRANSLATION

The wind blowing over that deadly lake carried droplets of water to the shore. Simply by coming in contact with that poisonous breeze, all vegetation and creatures on the shore died.

PURPORT

The word sthira, "unmoving creatures," refers to various types of vegetation including trees, and jańgama refers to moving creatures such as animals, reptiles, birds and insects. Śrīla Śrīdhara Svāmī has quoted a further description of this lake from the Śrī Hari-vaḿśa (Viṣṇu-parva 11.42, 11.44 and 11.46):

dīrghaḿ yojana-vistāraḿ

dustaraḿ tridaśair api

gambhīram akṣobhya-jalaḿ

niṣkampam iva sāgaram

duḥkhopasarpaḿ tīreṣu

sa-sarpair vipulair bilaiḥ

viṣāraṇi-bhavasyāgner

dhūmena pariveṣṭitam

tṛṇeṣv api patatsv apsu

jvalantam iva tejasā

samantād yojanaḿ sāgraḿ

tīreṣv api durāsadam

"The lake was quite wide — eight miles across at some points — and even the demigods could not cross over it. The water in the lake was very deep and, like the immovable depths of the ocean, could not be agitated. Approaching the lake was difficult, for its shores were covered with holes in which serpents lived. All around the lake was a fog generated by the fire of the serpents' poison, and this powerful fire would at once burn up every blade of grass that happened to fall into the water. For a distance of eight miles from the lake, the atmosphere was most unpleasant."

Śrīla Sanātana Gosvāmī states that by the mystical science of jala-stambha, making solid items out of water, Kāliya had built his own city within the lake.

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