31. The Palace of Illusions by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni


The Palace of Illusion is a retelling of the ancient Indian epic, Mahabharata from Draupadi’s point of view. We all have grown up listening to different stories or instances from Mahabharata, but how many of us have really read the epic? It is said that keeping Mahabharata in the house is a bad omen and it brings negativity and misfortune. It is a story of the struggle and the ultimate war between two groups of cousins of the Kuru clan, Pandavas and Kauravas. The novel revolves around Draupadi’s side of the story from her birth till the end. We all know the story of Mahabharata, so in this blog instead of retelling it, I will tell you the facts I learned from The Palace of Illusions that might be new to you.

Draupadi and her names: Draupadi was also known as Panchali. The name, Draupadi was given to her by her father, Raja Drupad, it meant ‘Daughter of Drupad’. She was not fond of her name and she found it very egoistic of her father to name his daughter after him. Many people assume that she was called Panchali because she was wife to five Pandavas, but the reason behind that name was that she was the princess of Panchal.

Mahabharata, written before its time: The epic was written by Sage Vyasa, according to a scene in the novel which shows Darupadi’s first meeting with Vyasa when she was a kid, he was already writing Mahabharata before its time.

Vyasa and his three warnings: Vyasa during his first meeting with Draupadi told her that she will be the cause of the biggest war in the history of mankind. She will be the reason for Mahabharata. He also told her that she will have five husbands. This shocked Draupadi and she asked him to stop this war from happening. She did not want to be the cause of it. Vyasa gave her three warnings which will prevent the war, but, she could not abstain from doing those things.

Draupadi and her beauty: The next fact came as a surprise to me. According to the novel, Draupadi was of dusky complexion and because of this she was called Krishna by God Krishna. We have seen multiple remakes of Mahabharata on TV, but all of them felt the need to show Draupadi as a fair beauty. The fact saddened me for a few minutes considering the racist behaviour of the society.
Draupadi and Karna: The novel explores the relationship between Draupadi and Karna and their liking towards each other.

The novel is called The Palace of Illusions because it portrays the palace of the Draupadi and the Pandavas in Indraprastha which was created by Maya: it was a Maya Jaal. The palace was half real and half of it was an illusion created by Maya which leads people to believe things that don’t even exist.  

The novel is a must-read if you are keen towards learning more on Indian mythology. It gives a lot of insights into Draupadi's life and the epic. 



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