Recreating Draupadi: A Study of Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni’s The Palace of Illusions

Mythological retellings have explored those issues of the epics which were submerged in the objective representation of the events. Redefining the existence of the epical characters, these revisionist writings have presented the events from the alternate perspectives. With an attempt to deconstruct the concept of ‘truth’, the contemporary mythological retellings have tried to demystify the dominant ideologies, and for this purpose they had brought into forefront the overlooked characters. In the grand narrative of the epics like the Ramayana and the Mahabharata the perspectives of the women characters were often overlooked; at the same time the objective representation of the events could not provide the necessary space to delve deep into their psyche. Therefore, ample numbers of the contemporary mythological retellings have highlighted the lives of the women characters of the epics, by presenting the events from their perspectives to explore those facets of the ‘truth’ which were overlooked in the source texts. This research article has attempted to reconstruct the identity of Draupadi of the Mahabharata by focusing on her character as depicted by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni in her The Palace of Illusions, a wonderful mythological fiction reinterpreting the events of the epic Mahabharata from Draupadi’s perspective. Adopting a feminist stance, this research article has explored Draupadi’s resistance to patriarchal domination, and in this way, here an attempt has been undertaken to reassert her individuality and to redetermine her role in the epic.


Introduction:
Feminism itself is known as a kind of constructive deconstruction, which attempts to relocate the lost identities of women. As a literary movement feminism can be said to have flourished with Mary Wollstonecraft's A Vindication of the Rights of Women (1792).
Gradually a number of great feminist texts have emerged, claiming the necessity to reclaim their own identity, as a revolt against the patriarchal domination. Some of the revolutionary feminist texts are, Simone De Beauvoir's The Second Sex (1952), Virginia Woolf's A Room of One 's Own (1929), Betty Friedan's The Feminine Mystique(1963) and Kate Millet's Sexual Politics (1970). Therefore, in order to demystify the patriarchal hegemony, Helen Cixous felt the necessity of the emergence of women's writing in order to portray the life of women from a woman's perspective, Cixous said, "Woman must write herself; must write about women and bring women to writing, women must put herself into the text-as into the world and into history by her own movement" (p 254). Adopting a feminist perspective,  the prejudices regarding women's identity, and in this way, she got some space to assert her own individuality and to admire her own uniqueness. Draupadi was not like her brother Dhri, who always tried to find out ways to admire their father, but Draupadi knew that covering the faults would do nothing good, and therefore she told Dhri, "You're always trying to make him good, pretending he wasn't at fault" (Divakaruni 16). She questioned her brother's blind support to their father, king Draupad,she asked him, "Aren't you giving up your entire life to get king Draupad what he wants-senseless though it is?" (Divakaruni 19).
Draupadi knew very well that women's emancipation could be brought through their self-esteem and it was only proper education which could improve their position by their intellectual development. Draupadi had to face great opposition when she expressed her desire to study with her brother. But at that time in their royal family, girls were not offered the same kind of education as that of the boys. Everyone in the palace had opposed her education and even her Dhai ma who had always supported her, was against it, and Dhai ma didn't prefer such education for her, because, Draupadi said, "She complained that they were making me too hardheaded and argumentative, too manlike in my speech" (Divakaruni 23).Draupadi dared to question the illogical and baseless prejudices regarding women's identity, when Draupadi's tutor said, "women are the path to ruin"(Divakaruni 24), then Draupadi could not remain silent, and in return she said, "Additionally, I resented the tutor's declaration that women were the root of all the world's trouble" (Divakaruni 24).She protested against such stern words from the tutor, by simply with her smiles, and her smile had done what she wanted to see. "Perhaps that was why, when he gathered up his palm leaf manuscripts and rose to leave, I pushed the curtain aside and gave him a brilliant smile as I bowed. The effect was better than I hoped. He jumped as though stung; manuscript fell, helter-skelter, from his hands" . Through this act of revolt, for the first time she could feel her own will power and she said, "But inside a current surged through me life on earth. Through the opinions of Dhri's tutor, women's stature in the society of their age was clearly revealed. Draupadi said, "Dhri's tutor was of the opinion that virtuous women were sent directly into their next birth, where, if they were lucky, they reincarnated as men.
But I thought that if lokas existed at all, good women would surely go to one where men were not allowed so that they could be finally free of male demands" (Divakaruni 155). These words of Draupadi were enough to prove her resistance against the patriarchal domination, and by expecting the existence of such a world she had reflected her own hope to attain the desired freedom and satisfaction.
Draupadi also expressed her dissention from Yudhishthira's beliefs and ideals, because she could not understand how he could show such obedience and gratitude for Dhritarashtra, the king of Hastinapur, who had once conspired to kill all the Pandavas.
Draupadi from her childhood had never learned to favor those people who were not worthy of that, even she could not forgive her father king Draupad also, as she said that she could not forget her father's initial rejection of herself. Draupadi's anger towards Dhritarashtra can be observed clearly when she said, "He blessed me also with such platitudes as may you be the mother of a hundred sons, or May your wedding sindura forever shine on your forehead. (We knew, of course, that he'd like nothing better than to have the entire Pandavalineage perish)" (Divakaruni 129). Dhritarashtra's compassionate and caring words for the pandavas and for herself had always surprised her, and also compelled her to question Dhritarashtra's deceptive dual attitudes towards them, and she speculated in her mind, "Was he a saint, or merely lacking in common sense?" (Divakaruni 129 lost his right over her. She recalled about the Nyaya Shastra to assert the veracity of her claim, according to Nyaya Shastra, she said, "If perchance a man lost himself, he no longer had any jurisdiction over his wife" (Divakaruni190). She thought that the wise men of Hastinapur could not contradict the Nyaya Shastra, but she was mistaken, and Dussasan dragged her to the court. Draupadi's humiliation was enough to claim that, in a patriarchal society, the concept of 'dharma' or justice is itself biased, which men can use, change and create according to their own will. Even the shastras and scriptures are only used as the tools to appease their own dominant policies. Draupadi had tried everything to save her dignity, but she could not, and she was insulted and humiliated. Draupadi, who was also known as Yajnaseni, the lady who was emerged from the sacred fire, was aware of her own divinity, and she knew very well that she was here on earth to bring change for a better future. Though she was alone at the court, despite the presence of her husbands, she had not lost her courage and she addressed the Kauravas furiously, "All of you will die in the battle that will be spawned from this day's work. Your mothers and wives will weep far more piteously than I've wept. This entire kingdom will become a charnel house. Not one Kaurava heir will be left to offer prayers for the dead. All that will remain is the shameful memory of today, what you tried to do to a defenseless woman" (Divakaruni 194). She again said, "'I will not comb it,' I said, 'until the day I bathe it in Kaurava blood'" (Divakaruni 194 I can't be gambled away like a bag of coins, or summoned to court like a dancing girl" (Divakaruni 190 something breaks, a chain that was tied to the woman-shape crumbled on the snow below. I am buoyant and expansive and uncontainable-but I always was so, only I never knew it! I am beyond name and gender and the imprisoning patterns of ego" (Divakaruni 360). In this way, Draupadi had fulfilled her journey for freedom and this freedom had rescued her true identity.
Patriarchal ideology defines women as the inferior beings or the 'other' of the society.
Draupadi was also taught to live as the shadow of her husbands, which implies that she must stand behind her husbands in all the circumstances and she had to follow their each and every command blindly, because, they were her mentors and guides, and her duty was to obey their expectations and follow their path. But Draupadi with her strong determination and Palace Illusions by Divakaruni also can be considered as an attempt to criticize the baseless gender prejudices prevalent in our society, claiming the necessity to bring change.