This is the story of Draupadi, the wife of the Pandavas who struggles in a man’s world to ascertain her likes and dislikes, resulting in few successes and many miserable failures. In The Palace of Illusions by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni, we follow Draupadi’s attraction towards Karna, the enemy of the Pandavas, her approach towards her scheming mother in law, Kunti, and her complicated relationship on being married to five husbands at the same time.
Review
The Palace of Illusions tells the story of the epic Mahabharata through the eyes of the woman who plays a pivotal role in the battle between the Pandavas and the Kauravas – Draupadi. Here, we see Draupadi as a strong woman born into a patriarchal society that forces her to spend a lonely childhood having her brother as her only companion. Though Arjuna, the third of the Pandavas, wins her hand, she is helpless as she is made the wife of all five of the Pandavas by Kunti. Her grief at not being defended by Arjuna, anger in being used as a prize in the gambling games between the Kauravas and the Pandavas and her difficult life living in exile with her husbands in a forest as the obedient wife throw light on different aspects of her personality.
Read : A compendium of Indian mythology
Unlike the other versions of the story, where Kunti is seen as a devoted mother of the Pandavas, Divakaruni’s story reveals her cunning nature and her fear of society to acknowledge her first born son, Karna who was born from Surya, the Sun God, before her marriage. Along with the story of Draupadi, the book beautifully portrays the heartbreaking story of Karna who is mocked for his unknown lineage which disqualifies him from asking for Draupadi’s hand in marriage even though he is the eligible one. Karna’s frustration at being abandoned at birth and raised with no knowledge of his parents, Draupadi’s thoughts about him, his love for the haughty Draupadi and his agony of being torn between his mother and brothers on one side and his devotion towards his friend, Duryodhana of the Kaurava clan on the other, all form facets of the great war.
The Palace of Illusions is about loss
On a deeper note, the book talks about right and wrong and the victory and inevitable loss brought about by war. It makes you ponder whether unfair means towards victory for a good cause are ethical or not. Throughout, the palace, constructed on the instructions of Draupadi shines as a mysterious object — “Above us our palace waits, the only one I’ve ever needed. Its walls are space, its floor is sky, its center everywhere. We rise; the shapes cluster around us in welcome, dissolving and forming again like fireflies in a summer evening.”
Title : The Palace of Illusions
Author : Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni
Published : 2008
Language : English
Pages : 360
Rating : 3/5
Palace of Illusions is one of my favourite books of all times. The women aren’t put on a pedestal but are human like us. It makes the epic more real and approachable.
True that! Wonderfully written book