– Chitra Bannerjee Divakaruni
“Finally I had the freedom men had for centuries, my situation was very different from that of a man with several wives. Unlike him, I had no choice as to whom I slept with, and when. Like a communal drinking cup, I would be passed from hand to hand whether I want it or not.” This is for all of you who envy Draupadi as she married 5 greatest men. This is how it felt inside.
The Palace of Illusions has been a near visual treat to read. If any of you are still unaware of its being, this book is the re-telling of epic Mahabharata via the voice of Draupadi. I will call Draupadi Panchali throughout from now because she resonated better with it herself.
The book includes family chart of the clans of kingdoms involved in the beginning itself to refer to time and again if you’re reading this for the first time and are bad at remembering names and relations. It is a mythological fiction and I’d like to call it magical realism, one like 100 years of solitude.
“Words wasted energy. I would use my strength instead to nurture my belief that my life would unfurl uniquely.” This is Panchali who doesn’t believe in speaking a lot, yet shakes up kingdoms when she does. She had been craving for love, her palace and a space of her own, always wanted to belong somewhere. We’re often told that she was greedy and rude but we have to understand what went into her mind when she called upon all this destruction in so many important lives.
“All these years he’d been to me as the air I breathed- indispensible and unconsidered.” Friendship of Krishna and Arjun is famous since time unknown but this book unravels the bond between Krishna and Krishnaa (Panchali). Krishna called her Krishnaa because both of them shared the same skin color (dark is Krishna in Hindi), which you won’t know because I didn’t know for a long time myself. Panchali and Krishna has always been portrayed as fair and lovely irrespective of what is written in the original texts. From these dramatizations, we just know a few scenes where Panchali’s honor was saved when Krishna emerges and a little bit of counsel he provides to her at the time of swayamvar. This book has a lot many beautiful facets to their friendship that I love.
“Often when I was fearful and didn’t know what to do, I thought of Krishna. It didn’t necessarily remove my problems, but it often calmed me.” This makes me dive in her Spirituality. Panchali always saw him as a guide and friend rather than an unquestionable god.
The book deals with effortless time lapse story telling all throughout. It had gripping elements of mystery for first time readers, the same moments that re-readers skip a heartbeat at! And beautiful short paragraphs, saving space but conveying the necessary history to keep the narrative rolling.
Cruel Patriarchy unveiled ahead:
“But I was distressed by the coldness with which my father and my potential husbands discussed my options, thinking only of how these would benefit-or harm-them” And we suppose Cheer-haran was the only evil thing she had to face. All these details are noticed only when seeing like a feminist.
I adore the Cheer Haran segment of this book. Less drama,more impact! No maha-episodes, exaggerations or stretching.Pure story telling –heartfelt and stirring. ‘The wife is the property of the husband no less than a cow or a slave; I was no unlettered girl, ignorant of the law. ; in thinking this, I was mistaken. In what happened next, the laws of men would not save me.’ (Panchali’s brainstorming thoughts with the turn of events.)
‘I was left unsatisfied by the portrayals of the women’- Chitra Bannerjee. ‘I would have one of them tell it herself, with all her joys and doubts, her struggles and her triumphs , her heartbreaks, her achievements, the unique female way in which she sees her world and her place in it.’ Paanchali had been humiliated as a queen and as a servant (when in disguise) She couldn’t help but wonder the way inferior women were looked down upon. She knew she had to do something about the treatment of women. Read the book to know how she tackles the hate of these women whom she’d left widow and childless because of her curses and how she wins their trust if not love in the unfortunate turn of events. And how the author succeeds in leaving the readers with satisfaction she never felt herself.
