The Palace of Illusions – Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni
Pages: 360
The book was first published way back in 2008, though I was told about it by one of my dear friends in early 2024. When I was at the Hyderabad Airport in May this year, I absentmindedly started browsing through the books on display and this one caught my eye. Impulsively, I bought it even though I was not sure if I would get any time to read it.
The Author’s Note mentioned that several people told her to shelve this project as Mahabharata is considered cursed. She didn’t stop and started writing this book. Within a week, lightning struck and they incurred heavy damage. A bad omen. I could read only this much before I reached Delhi. Within 4 days, I got the news of a terrible road accident injuring my side of the family. A bad omen?! Anyway, I couldn’t get any time to pick this book up to read beyond the Author’s Note. A couple of months later, I picked it up and every time I did, something or the other happened (not as bad as that accident, though) and I finally finished reading this book in October.
With this book, I am convinced that my inclination is towards the stories that have always been around us but given a different perspective. Amish Tripathi’s Shiva Trilogy and Ram, Sita, Raavan, and the Lanka War were the other such books that I thoroughly enjoyed. Here again, many of us are well aware of the story of Mahabharata. But the same story told through the eyes of Draupadi/Panchaali changed the game altogether. Through her eyes, the characters looked different, their flaws, their secrets, the role of other women, and her loss even though Pandavas won the war. The aftermath of the greatest war of modern times which nobody talked about, the role of Karna, her feelings for Karna, the fact that she too could watch the war up close like Sanjay and not only see but feel the agony of the warriors on the battlefield.
Initially, I found it difficult to understand the writing of Divakumari. I believe, there were majorly two reasons – (a) I was out of touch of reading, and (b) there is some kind of poetic expression in her writing, which I am not a very strong admirer of. Still, after a few days, the story started growing on me. I must admit that even though, I knew the Mahabharata, there was a surprise element throughout the book as this was a new perspective that I was reading this tale from. The pain the survivors (and the winners) of the war went through, their final journey, Pandava’s, Krishna’s, and Panchaali’s eventual death, the description where those who lost their lives in the war sat together laughing and having a good time in the other world gave me goosebumps. The relationship between Krishna and Panchaali is given a lot deeper meaning. All I knew (from my limited knowledge) was when Krishna saved Panchaali in the court when Duryodhan was humiliating and disrobing her. The Palace that was built for Pandavas and Panchaali is described with intricate detailing.
Rating: 4/5
Recommendation: TMM would highly recommend reading this wonderful book. It might take a few days to get a hang of this new perspective and characteristics of the main actors in this tale from the eyes of Panchaali but once it does, it will be difficult to put the book down. Do watch out for the ‘bad omens’ though! Just kidding. Have a great read.
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