Shloka 30
स्तन्यस्य मातुर्मधुसर्पिषोर्वा माध्वीकपानस्य च सत्कृतस्य । दिव्यस्य वा तोयरसस्य पानात् पयोदधिभ्यां मथिताच्च मुख्यात्,“मैंने माताके दूधका, मधु और घीका, अच्छी तरह तैयार किये हुए मधूक-पुष्पनिर्मित पेय पदार्थका, दिव्य जलके रसका, दूध और दहीसे बिलोये हुए ताजे माखनका भी पान या रसास्वादन किया है; इन सबसे तथा इनके अतिरिक्त भी संसारमें जो अमृतके समान स्वादिष्ट पीनेयोग्य पदार्थ हैं, उन सबसे भी मेरे इस शत्रुके रक्तका स्वाद अधिक है
stanyasya mātur madhu-sarpiṣor vā mādhvīka-pānasya ca satkṛtasya | divyasya vā toya-rasasya pānāt payo-dadhibhyāṁ mathitāc ca mukhyāt |
Sañjaya said: “I have tasted my mother’s milk; I have drunk honey and clarified butter; I have enjoyed well-prepared mādhvīka (a drink made from madhūka blossoms); I have sipped the essence of celestial waters; and I have tasted the finest fresh butter churned from milk and curd. Yet, more delicious than all these—and even than any other nectar-like drink in the world—is the taste of my enemy’s blood.”
संजय उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse uses extreme taste-imagery to show how war can invert values: what is naturally pure and nourishing (milk, honey, ghee) is rhetorically surpassed by the ‘taste’ of an enemy’s blood. It warns, by depiction, how vengeance and battlefield fury can eclipse ordinary ethical sensibilities.
Sañjaya reports a warrior’s fierce boast in the midst of the Kurukṣetra conflict: after listing the finest drinks known in human and even divine experience, the speaker declares that the blood of his enemy is more gratifying than all of them—highlighting the brutality and psychological intensity of the battle.