48 pages • 1 hour read
Chitra Banerjee DivakaruniThe Palace of Illusions
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2008A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Chapters 7-12Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 7 Summary: “Fish”
Panchaali sits under a tree reading the nyaya shastra, or the “laws of the land,” a book she got from Dhri (53). Dhai Ma informs her that she must get married the following month. King Drupad has arranged a swayamvar, a contest in which men will vie for Panchaali’s hand in marriage. Instead of being able to choose her husband, Panchaali must abide by the result of the skill test. To pass, a warrior must “pierce a fish made of metal, revolving high on the ceiling of the wedding hall” (56). However, he can only look at the reflection of the fish in a pool of water and must shoot Kindhara, the heaviest bow, through holes in a shield.
Chapter 8 Summary: “Sorceress”
A sorceress arrives at the palace, saying to Panchaali, “I’ve been sent […] to fill some of the bigger gaps in your useless education” (60). She does not reveal who sent her or how she came to be there.
The sorceress teaches Panchaali “unqueenly skills,” such as learning to sleep on the floor, eat little, and wear rough clothing (61). She also teaches her how to cook, heal, and speak well. She even educates her the art of the seduction as time goes on, teaching Panchaali how to create lust in her partner.
Eventually, the sorceress tells Panchaali the tale of Kunti, Arjun’s mother. Kunti is in a loveless marriage of convenience to her husband, Pandu, who is infertile. She is given a boon by the gods that allows her to ask them to father her children. She has three children. One of her children, Arjun, is the son of Indra, the king god. She extends the boon to her husband’s second wife, Madri, who has two children. After Madri’s death, Kunti adopts Madri’s two sons. All five of these boys make up the Pandava brothers.
The sorceress gives Panchaali a map of her country, explaining that the country must start over with a Great War because its kings have become too greedy for power.
Chapter 9 Summary: “Portrait”
An artist presents portraits of the kings, who compete in the contest for Panchaali’s hand in marriage. She sees many portraits and knows that many depict “decent men. But I hated them for coveting me, and I prayed that each would fail” (68). In the final painting, she sees King Duryodhan, who makes her uncomfortable. She is captivated by Karna because “his eyes were filled with an ancient sadness” (69). Panchaali pines after Karna throughout the remainder of the novel. Krishna takes issue with Karna because he is not really a prince; Karna’s kingdom was gifted to him by his friend, Duryodhan.
The artist reports that the Pandavas, including Arjun, have died in a fire. Krishna, however, doubts this report and instructs the artists to show Panchaali a portrait of the five brothers.
Chapter 10 Summary: “Births”
The artist shows Panchaali a portrait of Gandhari, who is Duryodhan’s mother and Arjun’s aunt. She wears a blindfold in deference to the blindness of her husband, Dhritarashtra, who is referred to as the blind king. Dhai Ma reports that they had an unhappy marriage. Dhritarashtra wanted to be king but was passed over for his brother, Pandu. Kunti gets pregnant before Gandhari, making it harder for Dhritarashtra to make a claim for the throne. While pregnant, Gandhari “struck her stomach again and again until she bled, and bleeding, gave birth to a huge, unformed ball of flesh” (77). A holy man arrives and cuts the ball into 100 pieces, which he places into vats of butter. A year later, Duryodhan and his sister, Duhsala, are born.
Karna, Duryodhan’s best friend, also has an unusual birth. Adhiratha, a chariot driver, finds Karna in the river Ganga, floating in a wooden casket, when he is a week old. When found, Karna wears gold earrings and armor that can’t be removed.
Chapter 11 Summary: “Scorpion”
Dhri tells Panchaali a story about a tournament that Drona created to allow the young princes to demonstrate their skills. Arjun performs well, shooting arrows skillfully, and is the top contender for winner of the tournament. Karna, who at the time is an “unknown youth in golden armor,” enters the tournament and performs just as well as Arjun (81). He challenges Arjun to a one-on-one fight. The elders challenge this because Karna is not a king, but Duryodhan shares his inheritance, making Karna ruler of Anga. The two are set to fight when Karna’s father appears. The crowd realizes that he is part of a very low social class, and they rebel. The tournament ends without Karna and Arjun fighting.
Dhri tells another story from Karna’s youth, in which Karna asks to become Drona’s student. Drona refuses, so Karna goes to Drona’s teacher, Parasuram. Parasuram accepts Karna as a student when he lies about being a brahmin, or upper-class. When Parasuram figures out that Karna is not a brahmin, he curses him. Distraught, Karna leaves and shoots a cow, a sacred animal in Hinduism. The cow’s owner also curses Karna, saying, “You, too, will die when you have no means of protection” (87). Dhri asserts that Karna is cursed and that anyone connected to him will also be cursed, so he advises Panchaali to put him out of her mind.
Chapter 12 Summary: “Song”
The day of the contest arrives. Panchaali gets prepared for the wedding ceremony, wearing special jewelry and clothing. She enters the hall where all the warriors are lined up. Arjun is not in attendance. Karna is present.
The contest begins, and all the warriors fail. Karna competes last and successfully picks up the bow called Kindhara, which no one else has been able to accomplish. Dhri stands up to challenge him, saying that he is not a king and cannot compete. Before they start fighting, Panchaali steps in, saying she feels that “something terrible [is] close to happening” (95). She asks Karna the name of his father, but Karna cannot provide an answer. He leaves the contest humiliated.
Chapters 7-12 Analysis
The author continues to explore the theme of gender dynamics in these chapters. King Drupad decides that Panchaali must marry, and he sets up a swayamvar. Essentially, he chooses a husband for her because the only person who can pass the test is Arjun. Here, he values politics and power over his daughter’s happiness because her marriage to Arjun will make it impossible for Arjun to remain loyal to Drona, Drupad’s enemy. His daughter is little more than his property and a pawn in his larger power scheme. Panchaali wishes to subvert this power structure, and she says, “No matter what my father’s intention, I could still make Arjun’s heart beat faster. I could still influence how he thought” (59). Here, her own abilities as an individual will be more powerful than her father’s assertion of his masculine power.
Divakaruni also explores subjugation through marriage via the narratives of Kunti and Gandhari. Kunti and Pandu have an unhappy marriage, and Kunti is not content in the relationship. Pandu is not able to give her children, so she must revert to receiving children from the gods to fulfill her role as a wife. Moreover, when Gandhari marries Dhritarashtra, she begins wearing a blindfold because her husband is blind. Here, she rejects one of her own abilities, her ability to see, so that her husband’s power and sway in their relationship will not be compromised.
The theme of fate also surfaces in these chapters. Fate sometimes seems inevitable, while at other moments it arrives as mutable and negotiable. For example, when the sorceress brings up the Great War, Panchaali insists that she will be the cause of it, saying she will make the innocent suffer. The sorceress replies by saying, “It’s always been that way. When did the innocent not suffer?” (66). Here, the sorceress suggests that Panchaali is not the sole cause of the war. Instead, it is an inevitable part of the way the world works. This view challenges the nature of fate. However, Panchaali is not necessarily convinced by this, and she continues to believe in the power of fate during the swayamvar. She steps in to prevent a fight between Dhri and Karna and notes, “I saved Dhri, yes, so that he could go on to perform heroic and terrible deeds. But death is not so easily cheated” (96). Though she changed the course of their lives in that moment, she asserts that fate will nonetheless prevail through death.
A nature motif also emerges in these chapters. The characters are closely in tune with the natural world, as is apparent through their frequent interaction with natural elements. For example, when Panchaali sits outside with her court attendants, she notes, “They murmured gossip, chewed betel leaf to redden their lips, exchanged recipes for love potions, pouted, giggled without reason, and emitted suitably feminine shrieks if a bee orbited too close” (52). Here, women very intuitively interact with betel leaf and bees because they are a normal and natural part of their daily lives. Sometimes, however, the natural world is a locus of power, like when the sorceress instructs Panchaali. She notes, “She gave me herbs, some for insatiability, some for endurance, some for the days I might want to keep a man away” (62). Here, herbs have the power to create change in Panchaali’s life because she imbues them with some degree of power.
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By Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni
