Chitra Benarjee Divakaruni’s ‘Palace of Illusions’ is The Mahabharata from feminine point of view. Here Draupadi is depicted as the protagonist of the story and the entire story of Mahabharata is related from her perspective. Her feelings, aspirations, wishes and desires and her mindset and ideology, how she was able to cope up with extra ordinary challenges in her life are the core content and plot line of this novel.
We can see the oppression faced by Draupadi at various levels through out the novel.
If you want to interpret a social reality, then you have to rise above caste, creed, religion, region, race, sex and other demographic barriers. The first lessons of patriarchy are learnt in the family where the head of the family is a …show more content…

Draupadi will be in conflict through out the novel. At the same time Draupadi acts haughtily, instinctively and recklessly so many times, without giving it a thought and without caring for others which lands herself in troubles loads of times. Why couldn’t it have been Arjun who fell in love with me? He could have wrested my mind from the thoughts of a man (Karna) who wouldn’t stop occupying it even though I would never see him again.
Here we can observe the dual standards of Draupadi. Draupadi knows that Bheema is in love with her. But she expects Arjun to fall in love with him. She wants to use Arjun’s love as a makeshift tool to pry her mind away from the thoughts of another man who is not her husband (Karna). Even though she is married to five husbands, she still pines for the love of another man.
And he is the same man who was insulted by Draupadi herself in front of the whole assembly of her suitors in her swayamvar, that too about his lineage and morality of his birth.

But conditions will force her to act against her will and take cruel decisions which bring grief to herself and her close ones. Nevertheless, She is not the only cause for the occurrence of the battle of Mahabharata.
There is nothing more dangerous in this world than a woman spurned. Drupadi had been humiliated and insulted in the presence of kings, courtiers and commoners after the dice game. As a princess of Panchal,