Palace of Illusions Review free essay sample

Palace of Illusions by Chitra Bannerjee Divakaruni is a beautiful book which gives a woman’s perspective on a story that deals mainly with male characters i. e. the great epic, Mahabharata. The book has been written from Draupadi’s, who was the wife of the 5 Pandava heroes in this epic, point of view. It throws light on her innermost thoughts and feelings, traced right from her childhood to her demise in the lap of the Himalayan mountains. It talks about her feelings about the strange in which way she was born – right out of a yagya (worship done around a holy fire, done to invoke â€Å"Agni† and other gods), her attitude towards her father who was much too blinded by his ambitions and revenges to even give her second glance, the mother she never had and her most beloved brother. It goes on to describe her rather strange marital relationship with all 5 of the Pandava brothers and despite having 5 husbands, her love for Karna, the most unfortunate and tragic hero in the epic. This book, quite relevant to today’s war torn world as well, narrates this novel in a beautiful mythical-magical fashion. Though it does talk about most of the events which took place in the original epic as well, the author has put in some beautiful imaginative twists of her own such as the intricacies of Draupadi and Kunti’s relationship, Draupadi’s secret longing for Karna and even addresses the question of whether Karna actually respected and loved her most, even more than any of her 5 husbands. The Palace of Illusions is mainly a love story at its core. It has been written almost like a romantic novel, set in the times of the Mahabharata and focuses mainly on Draupadi’s strange interest towards Karna, even before her marriage, how she accepted being married to the Pandavas despite loving Karna and how she gradually taught herself to accede to her fate, though in her heart, it was always Karna who was most important. It is almost like a tragic love story – about two lovers who silently love each other through all the years of their lives, yet never confess it to each other and accept that their fates would never let them unite. Just like Draupadi, even Karna secretly longs for Draupadi and never marries anyone again, after being disallowed from contesting for her hand. Hence at the core of all the wars, revenges and mythical happenings, lies a silent and tragic love story between two people whose fates have intertwined in such a strange fashion, that they’ll never be able to be with each other in their current lives. As a student of law however, the most important and fascinating aspect part of the book, in my opinion was the legal aspect of it. The ancient the Vedic society, to which all the characters belong, did not have any codified substantive and procedural laws, with the exception of the â€Å"Manu Smriti†. Despite this, the conduct of most men and women was prescribed by the strict and rigid laws of â€Å"Dharma† – the behavior which was seen fitting of the men and women of a particular caste. My project seeks to contrast these Dharmas with modern day laws. My project shall deal with a number of facets of this book. I shall talk about the various characters, mainly Draupadi, Karna and the 5 Pandavas. The author’s history and personality shall also be discussed and finally, the main chapter of my project shall deal with an analysis of the ancient and mythical laws and â€Å"Dharmas† as mentioned in this book as against today’s modern and contemporary laws. The final part of my project shall deal with my own interpretation and analysis of this book as a student of literature. Chapter 1: About the Author: Chitra Bannerjee Divakaruni Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni  is an award winning  Indian-American  author, poet, and the Betty and Gene McDavid Professor of Writing at the  University of Houston Creative Writing Program. She was born and brought up in Kolkata after which she moved to USA to pursue he studies and got a master’s degree in English from the Wright State University in Dayton, Ohio. Her work has been published in over 50 magazines, including the  Atlantic Monthly  and  The New Yorker. Her books have been translated into 29 languages, including Dutch, Hebrew and Japanese. Currently, Divakaruni teaches in the nationally ranked Creative Writing program at the University of Houston. She serves on the Advisory board of Maitri in the San Francisco Bay Area and Daya in Houston. She has also served on the board of Pratham, an organization that helps educate underprivileged children in India, for many years and is currently on their emeritus board. She is a crtically acclaimed author and has many accolades to her name. Her short story collection,  Arranged Marriage, won an  American Book Award  in 1995. Later two of her novels (The Mistress of Spices  and  Sister of My Heart) were adapted into films. Mistress of Spices  was short-listed for the  Orange Prize. Chitra Bannerjee Divakaruni is known to write books about strong and bold women who are caught up in difficult situations in life. Her subjects range from domestic violence, to abortions, relationship problems, poverty and racism. Her books are known to strike a special chord with the women readers who can not only her characters but also her style of writing. Chapter 2: Character Analysis The main character in this book is of course, Draupadi or Panachaali. This princess of the kingdom of Panchaal was born out of a yagya fire, unwanted by her father Drupad, who only wanted a son. The trials and tribulation she goes through in her life reflect on how a strong a woman she is, almost like an iron lady, in those ancient times, when women were perceived to be helpless and meek. She stands out as the only fiery and spirited lady in the world of male warriors, gods and the patriarchal laws. Although, Divakaruni has tried hard to cover up most of Draupadi’s flaws in her book, the characteristic shortcomings in Draupadi’s personality, which exist as intended even in the original Mahabharata, cannot be hidden quite successfully. Draupadi is overly ambitious and restless to prove herself as an achiever in the male dominated world right from the beginning. She comes across as scheming and conniving too, in some parts. She often uses her husband’s weaknesses to her advantage. For example, while in hiding in King Virat’s palace, in their 13th year of exile, Draupadi, who knows that Bheem deeply loves her and will gladly disobey his brothers for her, gets him to disobey Yudhistir and kill the King’s brother-in-law. She has had a power tussle with her mother-in-law Kunti right from the beginning, always trying to wrest her husbands’ attention away from their mother’s advice and suggestions. She also has the characteristics of an un-understanding, nagging and taunting wife. Ultimately, it is quite clear that devastating war of Kurukshetra was fought, mainly because of Draupadi and the fact that she constantly incited her husbands to avenge her humiliation and failed to encourage them to make peace with their brothers. Another important, but very passive character is that of Karna, who is the 6th Pandava, Kunti’s abandoned child, Duryodhan’s dear friend and advisor and the ruler of the Kingdom of Anga. In the book it is shown that Karna has always secretly loved Draupadi and so has she always loved Karna in her heart. However, Karna’s character is a foil to that of Draupadi’s. While Draupadi loves Karna because she knows that had she married him, he would have never gambled her away and let her be humiliated like the Pandavas did and always saw her own interest in everything, Karna on the other hand is a completely selfless, generous and compassionate human being. He is fiercely loyal and a devoted philanthropist. He has aptly been known as â€Å"Danveer† Karna in the course of history, signifying his commitment to charity. In my opinion, he also came across as the most just and legally sound person in the epic. Unlike the other males in the ancient society, including the Pandavas, who often altered the various rules of Dharma in order to suit their conveniences, Karna always stood by his principles and ideals, irrespective of whether they worked in favor of him or not. For example, in one instance in the story – Karna vowed to give away whatever he had to those who asked for it, right before the Kurukshetra war. The god Indra, disguised as a beggar, came and asked him for his gold earring and armor, which were attached to his body and protected his life. Karna cared more for his word and vow than his life. He immediately began taking ornaments off to give away. At his loyalty for his word, Indra was very impressed and instead of taking his armor away, gave him the Shakti boon. An ever loving and ever forgiving human being, Karna was one of the central characters in this story. Apart from Draupadi and Karna, the other main charcters are of course the 5 Pandava brothers, to whom Draupadi is married. They are Yudhistir, Arjun, Bheem, Nakul and Sahadev. Although in the original epic, these 5 brothers play a very vital role in the story, more so than Karna, in this version of the story, Divakaruni has not given them too much importance. Their functional role in the story remains since all 5 play important roles in the original epic, however Draupadi’s exact feelings and opinions of her 5 husbands are not clearly mentioned in this book. Hence, what can make out about them is this – Yudhistir is a righteous and strictly follows his Dharma, often giving it more importance than the relationships in his life. Arjun is the rather distant husband, who after seeing his wife getting married to all of his brothers, never really felt the same about them. Bheem, although very big, strong and tough, was very soft at heart and the one brother who loved Draupadi above everything else. Nakula and Sahadev were considerate and passionate towards Draupadi, but have never been accorded much importance in this epic. Chapter 3: A Comparative Analysis of Ancient and Contemporary Laws The Mahabharata is full of instances reflecting the laws and Dharma of the ancient times. The word Dharma essentially means the right conduct or appropriate behavior as per those times. Hence both men and women had to follow a separate set of Dharmic rules, as was seen appropriate for their gender and each varna or caste in the society (there were 4 – Brahmins, Kshatriyas, Vaishyas and Sudras) had their own Dharmic rules. Dharma was also the code of conduct of life as mentioned in the sacred vedic scriptures and texts. One of the most important and well highlighted Dharmic laws mentioned in the book are the laws regarding ones vows. It was deemed at that time that if one gives ones word regarding anything, then that word must be kept, irrespective of what the consequences may be. In fact, the popular belief of the time is reflected in the Sanskrit phrase – â€Å"Pran jaya par vachan na jaya† i. e. â€Å"Let our life go, but we will never give up on our word†. An interesting stressing the importance of one’s word would be – When Arjun won Draupadi’s hand in her swayamvar and got her back home, Kunti was busy cooking food in her cottage. Bheem, in order to trouble and tease his busy mother, called out, â€Å"Mother, look what Arjun has won today†. Kunti, who always wanted her sons to share everything equally, replied by saying that whatever it was, should be equally divided among all 5 brothers. Despite it being a wife that Arjun had won, Kunti realized that it would be against the Dharma to take back her word once given, and insisted that Draupadi must be married to all 5 of the brothers. A similar example may be cited for Karna: Just before the Kurukshetra war, Kunti approached Karna and told him that how she was his real mother and that all the Pandavas were actually his younger brothers. She pleaded him not to fight his own little brothers and give up on the war, or at least come on the Pandavas. Despite telling Kunti that he loved her and his brothers, Karna said that he could switch over sides suddenly since he had already given his word to his friend Duryodhan to fight against the Pandavas. In this situation too, it was Karna’s word given to Duryodhan that compelled him to fight against his own brothers. Another important aspect of law comes forth in the rules for playing the game of dice. Playing dice was one of the favorite pastimes of the royal kings and the Pandavas and Kauravas were no different. The rules of the game were such – property once wagered cannot be taken back if lost. This law made itself significant in one of the most famous episodes of the Mahabharata, involving Draupadi’s public humiliation: The Pandavas was invited to Hastinapaur by Duryodhan and Draupadi accompanied them. Duryodhan invited Yudhistir, who loved playing dice a lot, to play dice with him. His uncle Shakuni played against Yudhistir but cheated in the game by using loaded dice made out of his ancestor’s bones. Slowly, Yudhistir started losing everything. Then he put himself at stake and lost; then he pit his 4 brothers at stake at lost. Finally he put his wife up and lost her too. Duryodhan ordered that now all the Pandavas were his slaves and hence commanded that they all must strip. Draupadi too, was made to strip. Dushasan, Duryodhan’s younger brother, started pulling away her sari, at which moment Krishna came to her rescue and protected her modesty by making her sari infinitely long. As per the law of that time, anything that had been wagered away could not be taken back. Wives were considered to be the property of the husbands and the younger brothers were considered to be the property of the eldest brother. Hence Duryodhana was right in ordering that the Pandavas and Draupadi were now his slaves. However, at the same time, this law can be questioned on other factors too: Is it not against Dharma for a man to humiliate other women? Draupadi was Duryodhan’s sister-in-law and hence, as per Dharma, she was like a sister. Is it not against Dharma to molest a sister? Is not against Dharma for a husband to wager away his wife as if she was mere cattle? Is not against Dharma for a ruler (Dhritrashtra) to allow grave injustice take place in his very court? These laws, regarding wager and the gravity of one’s’ vows and words can be compared to the contemporary contract laws. The Indian Contract Act of 1872 has clear provisions which deem the entire act of wagering and putting things at stake in a game of dice as illegal. Hence, as per today’s modern laws, Draupadi and the Pandava could never have been wagered away in the first place and even if they were, they were under no compulsion to follow as the act itself was illegal. Furthermore, the Indian Contract Act also contains provisions safeguarding morality, unlike the ancient mythological Dharma. For example, section 23 of the Indian Contract Act of 1872 clearly deems any contract or agreement with an immoral subject illegal. In such a situation, agreeing to give away brothers and wives as slaves is clearly an illegal act committed by Yudhistir. The Indian Penal Code of 1860 also has clear provisions against sexual molestation as well as for outraging the modesty of a woman, both of which are clearly missing in the ancient Dharmas. In The Palace of Illusions, when the Kurukshetra war is going on, Draupadi is able to see all that goes on the war grounds despite not being personally present there. This is because the sage Vyasa, the original author of the Mahabharata, gives her the special power to be able to see all that goes on in the battlefield. In this manner, the book also heavily talks about the various laws of the battle. There were a number of rules laid down before the war. Some of them were : The warriors were allowed to fight only from dawn to dusk and the battle could not take place after dusk. Also, no warrior was allowed to attack another below the waist. Similarly, a group of warriors could not attack a single enemy and nor was anyone allowed to attack someone who was unarmed. The warriors were prohibited from lying on the battlefield. Finally, no women were allowed on the battlefield. These are just some of the Dharmas or Laws of War as given in the Kshaatra Dharma. However, all of the rules of war were broken in the Kurukshetra war. Ashwathama attacked Draupadi’s brother in the night time, after sunset. Similarly, Bheem killed Duryodhana by attacking him on his thigh, below the waist; Abhimanyu was killed by an entire army of Kauravas, all attacking one poor warrior. Even the great Arjun violated the Dharma by attacking Karna when he was unarmed. Yudhistir, the ever so righteous and truthful man too broke the laws of battle by lying and saying that Ashwathama is dead, where in fact, only an elephant called Ashwathama had died. Sikhandi, a woman originally, too was brought into the battlefield by Krishna in order to kill Bheeshma-Pitamah, thereby breaking more rules. As against these ancient rules mentioned in the Manu Smriti and the Kshaatra Dharma, the modern international war laws have no such rules. In fact, most countries have a lot of liberty on the battlefield. Certain restrictions made by international law, regarding the use of chemical weapons such as Agent Orange, Mustard Gas etc, such as the Chemical Weapons Convention are in place. Similarly, Conventions like the Geneva Convention and the Hague Convention relating to war crimes and prisoners of war. These conventions also lay down rules regarding treatment of the vanquished and defeated peoples in an ethical and humane manner. In contrast to this, in ancient times, victory over a certain area meant that the winning side could loot, attack and harass the people belonging to the defeated kingdoms. Thus, the war laws too were very different in both the eras. Thus, it is seen that the ancient laws or Dharma were enlisted mainly in the Manu Smriti, Kshaatra Dharma, Rig Veda, Sama Veda, Atharva Veda and Yajur Veda. These were very different from the contemporary and modern laws as laid down in the statutes, procedural codes and international treaties. While the ancient Dharmas focused more on the moralities, appropriate conduct and fixed roles for men and women, modern law assumes the role of safekeeping and order-maintenance in the society. Draupadi and Karna An important aspect highlighted in this story, is the silent love story between Draupadi and Karna. Although Draupadi was married to the 5 Pandava brothers, in her heart, she always harbored feelings for Karna. She was first attracted to him, before her Swayamvar, taken in by his â€Å"dark, ancient looking eyes†. However, due to an ugly turn of events at the Swayamvar itself, she was unable to marry him, accepting Arjun instead. The love that Draupadi had for Karna has a deep connection law. This is because Draupadi was attracted towards him was because of his respect and commitment towards upholding the laws and the Dharmas. Draupadi constantly felt that had she married Karna instead, she would probably never have suffered all the hardships and injustices that she had to. Karna was a caring and compassionate soul and would never have kept his newly wedded wife in a small hut, left all alone. Being a staunch believer in Dharma and respect for women, Draupadi knew that Karna would have never put her at stake in agame of dice and nor would he have allowed her to be disrobed in public. These qualities of Karna, regarding his firm belief in his principles, his sense of justice, his charitable nature, all in keeping with the Dharmashastras, were mainly what attracted Draupadi towards him. Karna on the other hand, had fallen in love with Draupadi right from the beginning (as mentioned in this book), and he was enamored by her looks and her bold and fiery personality. After being disallowed from contesting for Draupadi’s hand in her Swayamvar, Karna never married anyone. He was a man of high principles and believed that if he could be united with the one woman he loved, he’d rather not marry anyone at all. The climax of this love story, however, comes not in the lives, but in the deaths of Draupadi and Karna. It is shown in this book that after Draupadi dies in the Himalayas, she goes to Heaven where she is met by Karna. It is shown that finally the two lovers unite in god’s abode where there are no more relationships and rules binding them. Hence, despite the fact both Draupadi and Karna loved each other, law and Dharma had a major role to play in the way their feelings played out in their real lives. None of them ever expressed their love to each other; in fact they even feigned hatred for each other. This was because it was adharma for a wife to have feelings for another man; similarly it was also adharma for a man to be in love with someone else’s wife. It was only in heaven, where there were no rules and laws binding them, did they unite. Critical Analysis and Conclusion: The Palace of Illusions narrates a wonderful, age old epic with a completely new and fresh perspective. However, it also fails to impress on many counts. While the point of view is different, Divakaruni’s style of writing itself is quite displeasing. She writes in a very matter-of-fact and straightforward manner, an approach which falls flat in this narrative which requires a more fantastical and magical style of writing in order to bring out the beauty and mysterious, mythical qualities that the original epic has. She also fails to bring out Draupadi’s personality in the book. It seems almost as if another person is trying too hard to write the epic from a different point of view, without making it a very natural proposition for the readers. Many of the incidents in the book have not been dwelt upon as much as they should have. For example, the part regarding the Kurukshetra war itself, or the journey made by her and her husbands towards the gates of heaven. The romantic twist that has been added by Divakaruni, in terms of the love story between Draupadi and Karna too has been dealt with in a highly amateurish manner. Clearly, the author cannot expect to the readers to believe her when she writes about a Draupadi, in her late forties, with 5 children and having endured many years of hardship, who still looks at Karna and has feelings akin to those experienced by an immature teenager. Narrations in which Draupadi’s heart flutters when she looks at Karna, her constant thoughts as to what Karna must be doing, what he must be thinking of her et cetera are too much to take, coming from an elderly lady, who has seen much in life. I also feel that Divakaruni has tried a little too hard to portray Draupadi as the insidious lady, who had a hand behind every single event that took place in the Mahabharata, without really accounting for it, factually. She has left many of Draupadi’s actions unexplained, which raises a doubt in the readers’ mind regarding the authenticity of the narrative. Finally, however, what Divakaruni has written, is an adaptation of a great indian epic and one cannot possibly go wrong with any version or adaptation of an epic as great as the Mahabharata. Though the book has its shortcomings, yet it makes for a good, racy and interesting take on the story and tries to break Draupadi’s image as a Krtiya or one who brings doom upon her clan and has even succeeded, albeit only to an extent.