A Reading of Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni’s The Palace of Illusions as a Discourse on Marginalization and Rebirth

Abstract

The myth of Draupadi is grounded in the history of the Mahabharata. It is a written discourse on the interaction between God and human being. It is an action oriented tale where most of the things are ideological with political intentions. The Mahabharata by Vyasa signifies Draupadi as the root cause of the Kurukshetra war, a negative image is being signified to this character. Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni takes this object that is subjected to various kinds of discrimination, trials and tribulation as the subject of her fiction The Palace of Illusions, signifies the marginalized position of women in society. The novel also celebrates Draupadi’s relationship with Krishna, an incarnation of Vishnu which signifies the glory of god. The present paper explores and interprets the significance of the myth of Draupadi and that of Krishna in Divakaruni’s The Palace of Illusions using the ideals provided by the cultural critic Roland Barthes.