The Palace of Illusions

( BOOK REVIEW )

The best thing about this novel by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni is the idea behind the story as it is a story of a woman in a male-dominated world. She took a simple story which is already known to many and presented it with a totally different viewpoint that is rarely considered by people, even in today’s time; the viewpoint of a woman. The woman that is considered as the cause behind the greatest war of her time. 

Long before I picked this book to read, I was familiar with the background of the story (or so I thought) – The story of the popular saga – Mahabharata as narrated by Panchaali (or Draupadi). But I did not realise until I picked it to read, that it is not just the story of an age-old saga; It’s the probable-story of the life of Panchaali narrated by herself and not just of the Mahabharata. The could-have-been reasons for various incidents that led her to make certain decisions. How much more there was to her character than mere cause of an epic war since that is how we remember her, don’t we?

But Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni painted a picture of her with a slightly different angle, that gave her more to be remembered by. This captivating narrative begins from her fiery birth to her demise from this mortal world, passing through every phase of her life; her childhood at her father’s palace, her marriage with her five husbands and motherhood. How an adrift and naive little girl changed into a valiant woman of courage and poise. How she brazenly faced every hard situation in her life which leads us to think that how strong a woman is or can be.

Draupadi is shown as a women who is ahead of her own time, which makes it a relatable story even today. There are so many instances from the stories which as a woman I can reflect back to in my daily life. The author has tried her best to make the story more realistic, and thus we see that not much has changed in our society even today. We have become ‘modern’ but sorry! Have we really been able to get ahead? Even today, women face several challenges such as conservatism, discrimination, patriarchy, stereotypes and many more. But is it only the fault of our society? Aren’t  we responsible upto some extent? Doesn’t that society consist of women too? But among all these questions is the point of what we act on. Are we a part of that ‘modern’ society which is modern just to say or we really modern and strong enough to stand against society’s injustice just like Panchaali did? 

But to be fair, the author didn’t just make her all perfect and good. She also showed the flaws in her Character as no one is all good. And thus we get to picture a realistic woman. 

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NOTE TO ALL READERS

There are various instances in the story which can’t be considered true, which may put many readers into confusion or even disagreement but it is just a probable-story and not all true. The author has used characters of the epic saga of Mahabharata and knitted a tale around it, so treat it simply as the imagination of a writer and nothing more. 

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“I had always wondered, how could she be the cause? Why does our elders tell us so? Why no one blames Duryodhan, or any other Kaurava brothers for the same, or other characters that are equally at fault? And that question remains still. But before, I used to get piqued up, and now at least I am at peace.”