Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni - Palace of Illusions

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T h e P a l a c e

? of Illusions

a cognizant original v5 release october 10 2010

Also by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni

Queen of Dreams

The Vine of Desire

The Unknown Errors of Our Lives

Sister of My Heart

The Mistress of Spices

Arranged Marriage

Poetry

Leaving Yuba City

Black Candle

For Young Readers

The Mirror of Fire and Dreaming

The Conch Bearer

Neela: Victory Song

Doubleday

New York London Toronto Sydney Auckland

T h e

P a l a c e

o f I l l u s i o n s

A Novel

C h i t r a l e k h a

B a n e r j e e D i v a k a r u n i

published by doubleday

Copyright 2008 by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni All Rights Reserved

Published in the United States by Doubleday, an imprint of The Doubleday Broadway Publishing Group, a division of Random House, Inc., New York.

www.doubleday.com

doubleday and the portrayal of an anchor with a dolphin are registered trademarks of Random House, Inc.

This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, organizations, places, events, and incidents either are the product of the authors imagination or are used fictitiously.

Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

Book design by Maria Carella

Photo of peacock feather by Siede Preis/Photodisc/Getty Images Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Divakaruni, Chitra Banerjee, 1956

The palace of illusions : a novel / Chitra Lekha Banerjee Divakaruni.1st ed.

p. cm.

Retelling of the Mahabharata.

1. IndiaHistoryTo 324 B.C.Fiction. I. Title.

PS3554.I86P35 2008

813'.54dc22

2007033784

eISBN: 978-0-385-52543-5

v1.0

to my three men

Abhay

Anand

Murthy

always

Who is your sister? I am she.

Who is your mother? I am she.

Day dawns the same for you and me.

From Innanas Journey to Hell,

3rd Millennium BCE,

translated from Sumerian by N. K. Sandars acknowledgments

My deepest thanks to:

My agent, Sandra Dijkstra, and my editor, Deb Futter, for guidance

Antonya Nelson and Kim Chernin

for encouragement

My mother, Tatini Banerjee, and my mother-in-law, Sita Divakaruni, for good wishes

Murthy, Anand, and Abhay for love

Baba Muktananda, Swami Chinmayananda, and Swami Vidyadhishananda for blessing.

authors note

Like many Indian children, I grew up on the vast, varied, and fascinating tales of the Mahabharat. Set at the end of what the Hindu scriptures term Dvapar Yug or the Third Age of Man (which many scholars date between 6000 BCE and 5000 BCE), a time when the lives of men and gods still intersected, the epic weaves myth, history, religion, science, philosophy, superstition, and statecraft into its innumerable stories-within-stories to create a rich and teeming world filled with psychological complexity. It moves with graceful felicity between the very recognizable human world and magical realms where yakshas and apsaras roam, depicting these with such exquisite surety that I would often wonder if indeed there was more to existence than what logic and my senses could grasp.

At the core of the epic lies the fierce rivalry between two branches of the Kuru dynasty, the Pandavas and the Kauravas. The lifelong struggle between the cousins for the throne of Hastinapur culminates in the bloody battle of Kurukshetra, in which most kings of that period participated and perished. But numerous other characters people the world of the Mahabharat and contribute to its magnetism and continuing relevance. These larger-than-life heroes, epitomizing inspiring virtues and deadly vices, etched many cau-tionary morals into my child-consciousness. Some of my favorites, who play prominent roles in The Palace of Illusions, are: Vyasa the xiv|

sage, at once the composer of the epic and a participant at crucial moments in the action; Krishna, beloved and inscrutable, an incarnation of Vishnu and mentor to the Pandavas; Bheeshma, the patriarch who, bound by his promise to protect the Kuru throne, must fight against his beloved grandsons; Drona, the brahmin-warrior who becomes teacher to both the Kaurava and Pandava princes; Drupad, the king of Panchaal, whose desire for vengeance against Drona activates the wheel of destiny; and Karna, the great warrior, who is doomed because he does not know his parentage.

But always, listening to the stories of the Mahabharat as a young girl in the lantern-lit evenings at my grandfathers village home, or later, poring over the thousand-page leather-bound volume in my parents home in Kolkata, I was left unsatisfied by the portrayals of the women. It wasnt as though the epic didnt have powerful, complex women characters that affected the action in major ways. For instance, there was the widowed Kunti, mother of the Pandavas, who dedicates her life to making sure her sons became kings. There was Gandhari, wife of the sightless Kaurava king, who chooses to blindfold herself at marriage, thus relinquishing her power as queen and mother. And most of all, there was Panchaali (also known as Draupadi), King Drupads beautiful daughter, who has the unique distinction of being married to five men at the same timethe five Pandava brothers, the greatest heroes of their time. Panchaali who, some might argue, by her headstrong actions helps to bring about the destruction of the Third Age of Man. But in some way, they remained shadowy figures, their thoughts and motives mysterious, their emotions portrayed only when they affected the lives of the male heroes, their roles ultimately subservient to those of their fathers or husbands, brothers or sons.

If I ever wrote a book, I remember thinking (though at that time I didnt really believe this would ever happen), I would place

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the women in the forefront of the action. I would uncover the story that lay invisible between the lines of the mens exploits. Better still, I would have one of them tell it herself, with all her joys and doubts, her struggles and her triumphs, her heartbreaks, her achievements, the unique female way in which she sees her world and her place in it. And who could be better suited for this than Panchaali?

It is her life, her voice, her questions, and her vision that I invite you into in The Palace of Illusions.

? Family Chart of

Main Characters in Kuru Dynasty

(Women characters are indicated in italics) Satyavati m. Shantanu m. Ganga Ambika and Ambalika m. Vichitravirya Bheeshma

Gandhari m. Dhritarashtra (the blind king) Duryodhan, Dussasan,

and 98 other brothers

(The Kauravas)

Madri m. Pandu m. Kunti

(The Pandavas)

Nakul

Sahadev

Yudhisthir

Bheem

Arjun

m.

m.

m.

m.

m.

Panchaali Panchaali

Panchaali

Panchaali Panchaali

and m.

(one son by each husband)

Subhadra

Uttara m. Abhimanyu

Pariksit

other Major Characters

Aswatthama: Dronas son

Dhristadyumna: Brother of Panchaali (often referred to as Dhri) Drona: Teacher of warcraft for the Kaurava and Pandava princes; teacher of Dhristadyumna

Drupad: King of Panchaal, father of Panchaali (Draupadi) and her twin brother Dhristadyumna; onetime friend and now enemy of Drona

Karna: Best friend of Duryodhan and rival of Arjun; king of Anga; as an infant he was discovered floating on the Ganga river and was brought up by Adhiratha the chariot driver Keechak: Sudeshnas brother and commander of the Matsya army Krishna: Incarnation of the god Vishnu; ruler of the Yadu clan; mentor to the Pandavas and Arjuns best friend; dear friend to Panchaali; brother of Subhadra, who marries Arjun Sudeshna: Virats queen; Uttaras mother Virat: Aged king of Matsya; Uttaras father Vidur: Chief minister of Dhritarashtra and friend to the orphaned Pandavas