New Delhi, India
Every book we read leaves its wisdom in our inner being and effortlessly helps us thrive in life.
“The Palace of Illusion” by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni is such a Vedic Story that left me with nothing but understanding a woman’s vulnerability, learning from the man-made world, and ultimately taking charge of our life to make it.
This is what I understood.
The book retells the ancient Sanskrit epic, the Mahabharata, from the perspective of a “woman.” Maha Rishi Veda Vyasa has written the Mahabharata in an illustrative way using the Sanskrit poetic expression. Earlier, I had read a little of the Sanskrit Mahabharata but couldn’t understand it despite my efforts and even learning the language in my school. So, I switched from Sanskrit to English and sometimes Hindi too.
There are many versions available of the saga, but the version of Divakaruni made me live the life of Panchali, the princess of Panchal and daughter of King Drupad. As the daughter of Drupad, she came to be known as Draupadi.
The Palace of Illusion (affiliate link) is a viewpoint of Panchali on the political intrigue, disturbing family relations, and battle between the cousins, the Pandavas and the Kauravas.
Born from fire, a twin of Drishtdyumna’s destiny is a roadmap that her father designed—Panchali lived a hardship life driven by humiliation, dishonor, taunts, marriage with five men, and even disrobing in a palace hall—made her life no less than a hell.
Draupadi lived a traumatic life that no woman wants to live but lives till today.
The struggle of a woman in our society has begun early, but with time she is mastering all with her effortless nature. Panachali is the first representative who stood for herself and brought darkness and doom to the lives of the Kauravas.
Krishna, her beloved Sakha, always stood by herself and guided her to make decisions as a woman. Even at her disrobing at the palace of Hastinapur.
Divakaruni wrote her story as she had lived life by herself—a complex, heart-wrenching, challenging role. She expressed the feeling of Draupadi for Karna, the Pandavas’ sworn enemy, adding an emotional, complex, and desirous layer of a woman balancing sweetness with poignancy and dignity.
The author vividly portrays Panchali’s life and her relationships with her brother, her husband, her sakha, her peers, her sires, and other women, as if we are seeing a motion.
I experienced a realistic and emotional rollercoaster while reading the mythological book. It is a sensitive, lucid narrative of an ancient Indian mythological era that was divine, rich, and magical.
The Palace of Illusions is an Indian Vedic Story I will always remember, as it conveys the feelings, thoughts, desires, and complex layers of a woman in a way that no one has ever done in literature.
I hope you too enjoy such great stories and learn something beyond the boundaries of human tendencies.
