Panchali NOT Draupadi

The assaulted and harassed but powerful, bold and headstrong

 

Many of us in south Asia have seen it on television or at least heard about the epic of Mahabharata. There are many versions of it but as Walter Anderson, an American Folklorist has said that the stability of tales amid variations does not hinge on verbatim repetition. The structure remains the same.

In the novel, The Palace of Illusions, Chitra Lekha Banerjee Divakaruni, has tried to portray the epic from the perspective of one of the strongest and one of the most important characters of the Mahabharata, Panchali (Queen of the kingdom Panchala), who was born in a man’s world and does not want to merely support the men around her. She broke the tradition by simultaneously wedding all five famous Pandava brothers, who have been denied their rightful kingdom. Draupadi (Daughter of the King Drupada) was the name she was given at the time of her birth but soon she avouches her name as Panchali because she wanted to be free from the male egoistic name that her father gave her. Mostly portrayed as a negative figure all over the country as many believe that it was her decision because of which it came an end of the third age of man. People don’t want to name their daughter as Panchali or Draupadi. But the representation of Panchali by Chitra Banerjee changes it all.

Chitra Banerjee is known for her feminocentric writings where the female character, whose views have mostly been ignored, stands tall in the middle. The Forest of Enchantments, another good example of her writings, is the epic of Ramayana which has been interpreted with the perspective of Sita. Chitra Banerjee narrates the story in the first person, of Panchali who was born of fire with her twin brother Dhristadyum.

The palace of illusions was the name of the envied palace that had been built by Panchali with the help of Maya, a magical demon King of the Khandava forest or Khandavprastha, which then became Indraprastha. The novel has 43 chapters which begin from fire and ends with fire. This novel has not only turtled around the character of Panchali but also her mother in law Kunti, who was previously described as the unfortunate poor thing rather than the bold, independent women who has been the backbone of the Pandavas and trained them mentally to face the Kauravas, cousins of Pandavas and the “to be ruler” of Hastinapur. She also does not forget to demonstrate Gandhari, the wife of Dhritarashtra, who has blindfolded herself for her blind husband.

Panchali, who kept a lot of secrets either be it the meetings with Vyasa rishi or her secret attraction to the mysterious man who is her husbands’ most dangerous enemy. This novel deals very cleverly with different aspects of her life from her secrets to her relationship with the mystical Krishna and her brother. Sikhandi, the transgender and its story has been described in such ease that everyone can understand every step of Sikhandi and compare it to the modern world.

Chitra Banerjee has always given women equal status in the society but the indifferences and the injustices borne by the protagonists break the utopia and shows that unless men stop believing that they are superior, the idea of equality is not going to prevail. Before she was betted in the “game” of gambling she was treated like a queen but after that, she was harassed in front of all the men-occupied Sabha(court) not a single man uttered a word but the mystical Krishna. Unfortunately, everybody doesn’t have mystics. Laxmi Oraon, a tribal woman who was rallying for the better tribal rights in the northeast Indian state of Assam in 2007 had been stripped naked and beaten by a violent mob and others watched it as an audience.

Having her home in Panchala she had to hide away, her freedom and honor had been gambled away and almost stripped in public. The servitude, assaults, the death of her children and relatives in the war and the lonely death of her falling off a mountain track where none of her husbands come to help, give the immense emotional experience. We have seen the war on the TV shows and we have seen how people have reacted to these tragedies. The Palace of Illusions gives us a ‘behind the scene’ kind of view.

VIVEK KUMAR

Location: India

Comments

  1. Anonymous1 July 2020 at 08:28

    After reading this review I am really keen to read The palace of illusion as soon as possible. Thank you Vivek sir for giving such a new insight on the book.

    ReplyDelete

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