Māluṅkyaputta was, according to Pali commentaries, the son of the lady Māluṅkyā of Kosala. Alternatively, Sanskrit dictionaries give māluka as the name of a people or a mixed caste, although I have not been able to trace any further details. His conversion is not recorded as he appears always as a monk in Pali. This discourse and MN 64 depict him as somewhat of a fool, but it seems that he persisted, and late in life sought teachings in meditation and ultimately realized arahantship, of which we have two different accounts (AN 4.257, SN 35.95). The latter contains an extensive set of verses attributed to him, which are repeated at Thag 16.5. A second set of his verses are at Thag 6.5.

“Extract this arrow”(imaṁ sallaṁ āharissāmi): in his Ayurvedic text Aṣṭāṅgahṛdayasaṁhitā, Vāgbhaṭa devotes the entirety of chapter 1.28 to this procedure (śalyāharaṇavidhi).

It would appear that dhanu is the general word for “bow”, of which cāpa and kodaṇḍa are specialized varieties. These bows appear with others in a list of weapons at Arthaśāstra 2.18.8. While it is not clear what these were exactly, kodaṇḍa is sometimes used for “eyebrows”, suggesting that the bow of that name was of the recurve type favored by horsemen, and the cāpa by contrast may have been straight.

The identifications for these are from Ñāṇatusita’s notes to Bodhi’s translation.

The animals bherava (“terrifier”, variant roruva “roarer”) and semhāra are otherwise unknown. The commentary explains them as “black lion” and “monkey”.

Again from Ñāṇatusita. Note that calves lose their teeth, and the roots are evidently quite sharp.

This is a double conditional, the sense being that if the pre-condition is met (locative absolute), the subsequent act would follow (conditional). The form echoes Māluṅkyaputta’s conditions, which is why the syntax here is more convoluted than in similar cases elsewhere.