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The Palace of Illusions

Jennie Camp, Special to the Rocky

Published March 7, 2008 at 12:05 a.m.

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* Fiction. By Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni. Doubleday, $23.95. Grade: A

Plot in a nutshell: This is a complex, beautifully wrought tale of Panchaali, a bold princess who marries five Pandava brothers. Panchaali follows her husbands in their search for the kingdom that is their birthright, a search that includes years of exile and a bloody civil war.

The story is based on the Mahabharat, a traditional Indian epic set sometime between 6,000 and 5,000 BC. In typical readings, Panchaali is depicted as an overly headstrong princess whose sharp tongue and determination ultimately led to widespread war and destruction.

Rarely is she called to the forefront of the action; the Mahabharat primarily focuses on the bravery of its male protagonists. But in Divakaruni's compelling new novel, we see the story through Panchaali's eyes: from the sage who tells her as a young child that she will one day marry the five greatest heroes of her time, to the great and bloody war of Kurukshetra that ends the Third Age of Man.

Sample of prose: As the character Maya builds Panchaali and her five husbands their magnificent Palace of Illusions, the threads of mystery and deception embedded in the palace description echo those throughout the novel:

"There were corridors lighted only by the glow of gems, and assembly halls so filled with flowering trees that even after hours at council one felt as though one had been relaxing in a garden. Almost every room had a pool with scented water. Not all his magic was benign, though. Early in our stay, before we got used to looking at things a certain way, we bumped into walls built of crystal so clear that they were transparent, or tried vainly to open windows that were painted on. . . . At those times I thought I heard Maya's disembodied, mocking laughter. But it all added to the allure of this palace that was truly like no other."

Pros: Panchaali is an admirably complex character - a spirited, fiery woman in an era dictated by men and their gods.

Cons: None.

Final word: Divakaruni's feminist reading of Indian lore offers readers a magical lens into the political interplay of gender, castes, birthright and life in the monarchy. Divakaruni is an author to watch.