Myth, Memory, and Female Agency in Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni’s The Palace of Illusions: Reclaiming Draupadi’s Voice Through Feminist Myth-Making

Abstract

Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni's The Palace of Illusions (2008) retells a mythical tale of Mahabharata from the perspective of Draupadi, making the traditional epic narrative a tale of women’s consciousness and rebellion. In this paper, I would like to discuss how the author uses the concepts of myth as a living cultural memory and the idea of reconstruction of female agency through the revival of Draupadi's voice. Based on the theories of cultural memory, feminist myth criticism, and Indian Knowledge Systems, the study shows that Divakaruni does not deny mythology or simply update it but recovers myth as a vibrant memory space which gives women an opportunity to navigate their identity, power, and subjectivity. In order to do so, the following three interconnected aspects will be discussed: myth as cultural memory, memory as resistance to patriarchal historiography, and agency of women as self-narration. It will be shown that The Palace of Illusions turns Draupadi into a conscious subject who reinterprets the concept of dharma, desire, and fate. Therefore, this reinterpretation proves that myth is an important means of reconstruction of female history while keeping the philosophical basis of Indian civilization.