She presents Panchali’s life as a series of choices made by Panchali, and not the people around her, giving her a voice in the overwhelmingly patriarchal society that was ancient India.

But Divakaruni moves away from such interpretations to provide a new outlook on Panchali.ĭivakaruni portrays Panchali as a powerful, strong, and independent woman, an equal to the men around her rather than subservient. Many believe that it was her headstrong actions that brought about the destruction of the Third Age of Man and she is known to be a kritya, one who brings doom to her clan. Though popularly known as Draupadi (literally meaning daughter of Drupad), she quickly reasserts herself and renames herself Panchali (meaning from the Kingdom of Panchala), rejecting the egoistic name her father gave her and refusing to believe that her identity was to be bound by the men in her life.ĭraupadi has been portrayed mostly negatively in Hindu society – take a trip to India and you will fail to find girls being named after her. The novel is written in first person, giving Panchali’s own thoughts on her own life.

Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni’s bestselling novel, The Palace of Illusions, is an interpretation of the events of the Hindu epic Mahabharata through the lens of the woman married to the five Pandava brothers, the greatest heroes of their time – Panchali.

The palace of illusions