The Palace of Illusions: A Novel is a 2008 novel by award-winning novelist and poet Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni. It was released by Doubleday.
The novel is a rendition of the Hindu epic Mahabharata as told from Draupadi's (Panchaali's) viewpoint, namely, that of a woman living in a patriarchal world. As Booklist summarizes the plot, "Smart, resilient, and courageous Panchaali, born of fire, marries all five of the famously heroic Pandava brothers, harbors a secret love, endures a long exile in the wilderness, instigates a catastrophic war, and slowly learns the truth about Krishna, her mysterious friend."[1]
Reviews
"...it's really intriguing to find a book that deals differently with Draupadi - not a Manushi article or a Gender Studies tract on 'Mythical Women and Agency', but a proper story, like Vyasa's epic, where Draupadi begins. ... The 'mysterious woman' style of narration is unmistakably Divakaruni's." Renuka Narayanan, Hindustan Times[2]
"Is Divakaruni's novel a usefully accessible version of a remote cultural artifact, or a case of forcing a remarkable quart into a conventional pint pot?" Elsbeth Lindner, San Francisco Chronicle[3]
The Mahābhārata is one of the two major Sanskrit epics of ancient India, the other being the Rāmāyaṇa. It narrates the struggle between two groups of cousins in the Kurukshetra War and the fates of the Kaurava and the Pāṇḍava princes and their successors.
The Pandavas refers to the five brothers, Yudhishthira, Bhima, Arjuna, Nakula and Sahadeva, who are the five acknowledged sons of Pandu and central to the epic of Mahabharata. The Pandavas waged a civil war against their extended family consisting of their cousins Kauravas led by Duryodhana and his brothers, as well as their preceptor and gurus Bhishma and Drona respectively. This conflict was known as the Kurukshetra War. The Pandavas eventually won the war with the death of the Kauravas, albeit at great cost as well as breaking contracts.
Draupadi, also referred to as Krishnaa, Panchali and Yajnaseni, is the main female protagonist of the Hindu epic, Mahabharata and the consort of the five Pandava brothers—Yudhishthira, Bhima, Arjuna, Nakula and Sahadeva. She is noted for her beauty, courage and a rare polyandrous marriage.
Karna, also known as Vasusena, Anga-raja, and Radheya, is one of the main protagonists of the Hindu epic Mahābhārata. He is the son of the sun god Surya and princess Kunti, and thus a demigod of royal birth. Kunti was granted the boon to bear a child with desired divine qualities from the gods and without much knowledge, Kunti invoked the sun god to confirm it if it was true indeed. Karna was secretly born to an unmarried Kunti in her teenage years, fearing outrage and backlash from society over her premarital pregnancy, Kunti had no choice but to abandon the newly born Karna adrift in a basket on the Ganges, in the hope that he finds foster parents. The basket discovered and Karna is adopted and raised by foster Sūta parents named Radha and Adhiratha Nandana of the charioteer and poet profession working for king Dhritarashtra.
Shakuni plays a key role in the Hindu epic Mahabharata. He is one of the main antagonists of the Hindu epic Mahabharata. He was the prince of the kingdom of Gandhara when introduced, later becoming its king after the death of his father, Subala. He was the brother of Gandhari and the maternal uncle of the Kauravas.
Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni is an Indian-American author, poet, and the Betty and Gene McDavid Professor of Writing at the University of Houston Creative Writing Program.
Kunti, named at birth as Pritha, is one of the principal female protagonists of the epic Mahabharata. She is best known as the mother of the Pandavas and Karna, the main protagonists of the epic. She is also mentioned in the Bhagavata Purana because of her connection with Krishna, the main figure of the text. She is described to be beautiful, intelligent, and shrewd. She is also mentioned in second canto of the Devi-Bhagavata Purana.
Mahabharat is an Indian Hindi-language epic television series based on the ancient Sanskrit epic of the same name. The original airing consisted of a total of 94 episodes and were broadcast from 2 October 1988 to 24 June 1990 on Doordarshan. It was produced by B. R. Chopra and directed by his son, Ravi Chopra. The music was composed by Raj Kamal. The script was written by Pandit Narendra Sharma and the Hindi/Urdu poet Rahi Masoom Raza, based on the epic by MaharishiVyasa. Costumes for the series were provided by Maganlal Dresswala. The serial claims to have used the Critical Edition of Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute as its basic source with Vishnu Sitaram Sukthankar and Shripad Krishna Belwalkar as its primary editor.
Randamoozham is a 1984 Indian Malayalam-language mythological drama novel written by Indian author M. T. Vasudevan Nair, widely credited as his masterpiece. The work won the Vayalar Award, given for the best literary work in Malayalam, in 1985. It also won the Muttathu Varkey Award in 1994. The novel has been translated to multiple languages. It was translated into English as Second Turn in 1997. Another English translation by Gita Krishnankutty published in 2013 is titled Bhima: Lone Warrior.
Aishwarya Rai Bachchan is an Indian actress and the winner of the Miss World 1994 pageant. Primarily known for her work in Hindi and Tamil films, she has established herself as one of the most popular and influential celebrities in India. Rai has received numerous accolades, including two Filmfare Awards, and was honoured with the Padma Shri by the Government of India in 2009 and the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the Government of France in 2012. She has often been cited in the media as "the most beautiful woman in the world".
Sister of My Heart is a novel by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni. First published in 1999, this novel was followed in 2002 by a sequel The Vine of Desire.
Kahaani Hamaaray Mahaabhaarat Ki is an Indian mythological television drama series on 9X based on the Sanskrit epic Mahabharata.
Yajnaseni: the story of Draupadi is a 1984 Odia language novel by Pratibha Ray. The story revolves around Draupadi from the famous epic Mahabharatha. The word Yajnaseni means a woman born out of fire. The book has been translated into various languages, including English, Hindi, Malayalam, Kannada, Marathi, Assamese, Bengali, Nepali and Hungarian.
Mahabharat is a 2013 Indian drama television series based on the Sanskrit epic Mahabharata. It aired from 16 September 2013 to 16 August 2014 on Star Plus. The whole series is available digitally on Disney+ Hotstar. The television show was produced by Swastik Productions Pvt. Ltd.
Mahabharat is a 2013 Indian Hindi-language computer animated historical drama film, directed by Amaan Khan and based on the Sanatana Dharma epic of the same name. The film is produced by Kushal Kantilal Gada and Dhaval Jayantilal Gada. The film was a Christmas release on 27 December 2013. Several actors like Amitabh Bachchan, Sunny Deol, Ajay Devgn, Anil Kapoor, Jackie Shroff, Vidya Balan, Manoj Bajpayee, Deepti Naval were signed up for the characters in the film. It is touted as the most expensive animated film in Bollywood. The movie tells the story of the Indian epic Mahabharata. It received mixed reviews, with praise for its voice acting, but criticism for its animations.
Droupadi Murmu is an Indian politician who serves as the 15th and current president of India since 25 July 2022. She is a member of the Bharatiya Janata Party. She is the first person belonging to the tribal community and also the second woman after Pratibha Patil to hold the office. Prior to her presidency she served as the ninth governor of Jharkhand between 2015 and 2021, and held various portfolios in the cabinet of Government of Odisha between 2000 to 2004.
Ini Njan Urangatte is a Malayalam-language novel written by P. K. Balakrishnan in 1973. The novel's inspiration is the Sanskrit epic Mahabharata. It may be regarded as a historically notable Malayalam-language novel as it has become a yardstick for epic Malayalam fiction, spawning many Mahabharata based-novels.
Ira Mukhoty is an Indian author. She studied natural sciences at University of Cambridge.
Kalo Bhramar is an epic Bengali detective novel. This is the first detective story introducing detective Kiriti Roy by Nihar Ranjan Gupta. The book was written in 1930's and parted into 4 volumes and in 1963, Mitra And Ghosh Publishers published the book.
Cheerharan is a Nepali mythological novel by Neelam Karki Niharika. It was published in 2016 by Sangri-La Books. It is the ninth book of the author. The book won the Padmashree Sahitya Puraskar in the same year. It is a retelling of the Mahabharata epic. The novel shows the pain suffered by women in the political and social environment in the epic. Karki has presented the views of various females characters such as Satyawati, Kunti, Ambika, Ambalika, Gandhari, etc. in this book unlike the epic which is mostly male-centered.
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