Indian History, Myth and Panchaali in The Palace of Illusions

Abstract

The Palace of Illusions, a rendition of the great epic Mahabharata subtitled as Panchaali's Mahabharata’, provides a powerful voice to Draupadi. She was a proud princess of King Drupad, obedient daughter in law of Kunti, graceful wife of Pandvas and a true Sakhi of Lord Krishna but she had no voice at all. Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni, the Indian American novelist revealed her inner core heart which was unheard and unseen by the patriarchal society of the time. Hayden White argued that historical writing was influenced by literary writing in many ways, sharing the strong reliance on narrative for meaning, therefore eliminating the possibility of objective or truly scientific history (White Hayden, Winter 1973) "Interpretation in History" New Literary History.4:281-314.). This paper discusses whether the re-creation of Panchaali's  narrative in The Palace of Illusion would provide a new meaning to her character , consequently bring a change in Indian society or influence Indian myth and Indian culture in future.