‘The Palace of Illusions’, written by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni , made me aware of a completely different facet of the legendary epic, ‘Mahabharat’. And I saw it through the eyes of a woman who was partially responsible for the story to unfold in that particular way; Draupadi, or a name more aptly suiting her persona, Paanchali! Since my childhood, I have known the Mahabharat to be a story of the war of the cousins, the Kauravas and the Pandavas wherein the latter were ‘good’ and the former, ’evil’. This made me think that everything in this world is black or white, evil or good! How simple life is when we are children! And how easy it was for the child me to assume that there can only be two kinds of people in this world, good and bad!
But the ‘Mahabharat’ soon faded in my memory as I started growing up; I assumed that I knew the epic at least briefly, if not in detail and I did not doubt that version of the epic known to me. So I never really sat down and thought about it. Then my friend introduced me to this book, ‘The Palace of Illusions’. Being an avid reader of books based on legend and mythology, it immediately caught my interest. So since Deepti Tagare would not lend the book to me as she had not completed reading it, I went and bought the book from the roadside on FC road! Temptation got the best of me and my wallet (as always) and so I started reading it.
While reading it, I couldn’t help but admire the character detailing that Divakaruni has accomplished and maintained throughout the book. Paanchali has always been shown as a self respecting woman who survived a man’s world with her head held high. But what I truly appreciated was Divakaruni’s eye for the flaws in her personality. Her vanity, her temper, her selfishness, all has been portrayed exceptionally in this book. It gives you a woman’s perspective on the biggest war of all time. It makes me feel proud that someone thought it important to have a woman’s take on one of the greatest wars ever fought.
The book revolves around Paanchali’s thirst for recognition, her wanting to make a mark and leave her name inked in the pages of history as was stated when she stumbled out of the fire and was thus, born. It tells us her part in the war at kurukshetra, how it might not have happened if she would have altered a few of her actions. But what it makes us realize the most is that the true hero of the entire saga is Karna! Karna, the sixth Pandav (or rather the first Pandav) the firstborn of Kunti. He truly captured my heart for though he lived his life nobly and righteously, it was his unfortunate destiny that made him side with the wrong side! But inspite of the side he chose, he was always just and wise with his head on his shoulders. He stood by Duryodhan till the end proving that the relationship of the heart is much more important than the relationship of blood. His passion and simplicity could make any woman even today, want him by her side, just as Paanchali did!
Paanchali’s heart was imprisoned by him the moment she first set her eyes on his portrait. This doesn’t mean that she was not loyal to her husbands. She performed all her duties as a daughter of a king, the wife of five kings and as the queen of a kingdom with perfection that only few could manage to achieve but her heart always sought to be with someone else, Karna. And that is why, she was the first one to fall while climbing the holy mountain.
A love story, a political drama, an epic, call it anything you like, but the Mahabharat was and will always be a story about how your fate depends on the choices you make and how your choices affect everyone around you.
