Shloka 42

Devanagari script

एष ते रुधिरं कण्ठात्‌ पिबामि पुरुषाधम

Transliteration

eṣa te rudhiraṃ kaṇṭhāt pibāmi puruṣādhama

Translation

“看——你的血——我就从你的喉间饮下，卑劣之徒！”

Word by Word

• एषः: this
• एषः: Karma
• Type: Pronoun
• Root: एतद्
• Form: Masculine, Nominative, Singular

• ते: of you/your
• ते: Sambandha
• Type: Pronoun
• Root: युष्मद्
• Form: Genitive, Singular

• रुधिरम्: blood
• रुधिरम्: Karma
• Type: Noun
• Root: रुधिर
• Form: Neuter, Accusative, Singular

• कण्ठात्: from (your) throat/neck
• कण्ठात्: Apadana
• Type: Noun
• Root: कण्ठ
• Form: Masculine, Ablative, Singular

• पिबामि: I drink
• पिबामि: Karta
• Type: Verb
• Root: पा (पिबति)
• Form: Present, First, Singular, Parasmaipada

• पुरुषाधम: O vilest of men
• पुरुषाधम: Sambodhana
• Type: Noun
• Root: पुरुषाधम
• Form: Masculine, Vocative, Singular

Speaker

संजय उवाच

Characters & Entities

• Sañjaya

Educational Q&A

What is the core teaching?

The line highlights how unchecked anger in war leads to adharma: the enemy is reduced to an object of contempt, and violence becomes performative cruelty. It implicitly warns that victory pursued through humiliation and savagery corrodes ethical conduct and human dignity.

What is happening in the narrative?

Sañjaya is recounting a moment of extreme battlefield ferocity in which a combatant (not named in this single line) taunts an opponent with a gruesome threat—drinking the opponent’s blood from the throat—marking the intensity and moral degradation that can arise amid Kurukṣetra’s fighting.