Analysis And Review Of The Palace Of Illusion By Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni

The Palace Of Illusion is one of the international level bestseller books written by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni, (in 2008) released by Picador. Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni is an Indian-American award-winning author, poet, and the Betty and Gene McDavid Professor of Writing at the University of Houston Creative Writing Program. The author like many Indian children grew up on the vast, varied, and fascinating tales of the Mahabharata. As a young girl she listened to the stories of Mahabharata at her grandfather’s village home, or later, poring over the thousand-page leather-bound volume in her parent’s home Kolkata. She was left unsatisfied by the portrayals of the women in the stories and believed that the women remained shadowy figures, their thoughts and motives mysterious, their emotions portrayed only when they affected the lives of the male heroes, their roles ultimately subservient to those of their fathers or husbands, brothers or sons. All this motivated her to write in which she could place the women in forefront of the action she chose Draupadi for this and wrote ‘The Palace Of Illusion’.

The book generates a kind of suspense as we flip through the pages. The book is basically the narration of the events of Mahabharata which is an ancient Indian epic. Mahabharata is basically a story based upon the Pandavas and the kauravas who were cousin brothers but were enemies too. The Kauravas always wanted to have possession over the Pandavas belongings like kingdoms and wanted to have an authority over them. The hatred ultimately led to war between the cousin brothers for the throne of Hastinapur. Pandavas were five brothers and were brought up by Kunti. All the five Pandava brothers were married to Draupadi the daughter of Drupad, King of Panchaal also known as Panchaali.

The novel ‘The palace of illusion’ by Divakaruni is an interpretation of Mahabharata through the perspective of Draupadi, the protagonist. The novel traces the life of Draupadi life right from fiery birth. It clearly reflects the feelings and hardships of a woman born in men’s world or a woman living in a patriarchal world. Moreover she had to go through a lot of things and suffered a lot. Draupadi is portrayed as a strong woman who could take decisions for herself and was good at handling situations for herself. The novel has the view points of Draupadi on the event that took in the epic. In the novel Draupadi narrates how she was born and how she enjoyed spending time with her Brother and Dhai maa, then how she gets married to Arjun, the making of her palace which she called the Palace of illusion, the attraction of a woman towards a man who was not her husband, the terrible incidents at Hastinapur, how Duryodhan and Shakuni tricked Yudhisthir in game of dice due to which Pandavas lost all their wealth and possessions, including themselves and their wife Draupadi and eventually how all the events after this incident led to a full fledged war. Draupadi despite of all the sufferings and insults and feelings of helplessness at many points of time never gave up, she always stood with her husbands in their hard times and helped them in making decision. She always accepted the reality for instance she accepted the truth that she was married to the five brothers and fulfilled all her duties towards each of her husband as a wife. She fulfilled her role as a mother too but she fells sad as could not give time to them because she accompanied her husbands in the forests for 12 years. Draupadi had a very special bonding with Krishna who was a friend and also a guide to her, he helped on her on many occasions. Whenever Draupadi was in any difficulty or was confused she always remembered Krishna and talked to him about her problems.

The novel promotes feminism which is also a central theme of the novel. The Protagonist that is Draupadi tells or express how women had been considered lower than the men and that a woman’s role was to meekly serve her husband. No question of women’s equality with men were raised. Women or the female child of the family were not taught what the males were taught so gender discrimination was also prominent but Draupadi was of a different view and learned the arts, master politics, and comprehend books beyond her years. It is the story of women who demanded same amount of powers as the men were given, within the oppressive structure of patriarchy. A woman is not a thing that can be gambled away as Draupadi was in the game of dice between Yudhisthir and Shakuni. Women too have self respect and their own identity. In the second chapter of the novel it is also stated that the complexion of a person doesn’t matter and Krishna who was of Dark complexion never considered it to be a drawback for himself and there are evidences that show how much the females used to like him. Draupadi was addressed as "Krishnaa" means dusky beauty. This clearly shows there was no discrimination on the grounds of skin colour. The situation is somewhat the same today there are still the cases of gender discrimination, colour discrimination and women are still not considered to be same as men but yes the graph has declined but still it’s a long way to go.

The novel has been praised by Los Angeles Times, Houston Chronicle, Miami Heraldand, Bookreporter. com, Publisher’s Weekly and many more. It is praised as a lyrical tale imbued with the scent of ancient incense yet rooted in modern day relevancy. It is given 4 to 5 stars by the critics, the readers and the buyer on various websites. Some critics also believed that in such retellings, we get to see people and events through the perspective of a particular character and these lead to adding up to complete a fascinating tapestry. They believe that the book doesn’t always acknowledge the subjectivity of Panchaali’s viewpoint for instance, Duryodhan is an unsympathetic character in the book. According to me it is a very heart touching story of a woman suffering within a patriarchy society who always wanted to keep her view points in fore-front, who never considered herself less that a man in any way. It compels us to rethink our outlook towards Mahabharata. The original epic was about gods, kings, princes, precisely only about men. But Divakaruni’s interpretation provides a humanistic touch which makes it a master piece.

This interpretation of the epic makes me feel more personal and more aware of women suffering. The main character was really fun to get to know. She was very strong and smart though I feel that Draupadi should have raised her voice when she was asked to marry the five Pandava brothers. It is always believed that all the major wars or even fights are due to women and Mahabharat is stated as example but no one ever wondered about the suffering of Draupadi which is very well narrated in the novel. There are many events in the novel which makes me think what would have I done if I were in Draupadi which eventually made me feel goose bumps. I enjoyed reading this book and shall definitely re-read it again. It helps us to know all sides of a story before reaching a conclusion. I look forward to read more of Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni’s books.