Shloka 29
वाक्यशूरस्य चैवास्य परुषस्य दुरात्मन: । दुःशासनस्य रुधिरं पातास्मि मृगराडिव,और यह जो केवल बात बनानेमें बहादुर क्रूर-स्वभाववाला दुरात्मा दुःशासन है, इसकी छातीका खून उसी प्रकार पी लूँगा, जैसे सिंह किसी मृगका रक्त पान करता है
vākyāśūrasya caivāsya paruṣasya durātmanaḥ | duḥśāsanasya rudhiraṃ pātāsmi mṛgarāḍ iva ||
Bhīmasena uttered a dreadful vow: “Duḥśāsana—brave only in speech, cruel at heart, and wicked-souled—I shall drink the blood from his breast, as a lion drinks the blood of its prey.”
भीमसेन उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse highlights how grave violations of honor and dharma in public life can generate binding vows of retribution. It also warns that speech-only bravado and cruelty (vākyāśūra, paruṣa, durātman) invite severe consequences, while underscoring the epic’s tension between righteous justice and destructive rage.
In the Kuru assembly context, Bhīma responds to Duḥśāsana’s cruel conduct with a terrifying oath: he will drink Duḥśāsana’s blood like a lion. This functions as a narrative foreshadowing of the later battlefield act in the Kurukṣetra war.