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 37-43 Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 37 Summary: “Owl”
At this point, only the warriors Duryodhan, Kripa, Kritavarma, and Aswatthama remain. The last battle has arrived, and it will be a duel between Duryodhan and Bheem. The winner will rule Hastinapur.
As the two fight, Bheem hits Duryodhan on the thigh low enough on the body so that he is “violating the most important law of gada-yuddha” (302). However, Bheem still wins by saying that Duryodhan has fought without honor in the past.
The Pandavas are victorious, and the five brothers sleep in the Kauravas’ camp. During the night, Panchaali dreams that she is Aswatthama, who has hatched yet another plan against the Pandavas. When she wakes up, she learns that Aswatthama has burned the Pandava camp. Dhri, Sikhandi, and her five sons died in the fire.
Arjun pursues Aswatthama and finds him by the river Ganga. They fight, and Arjun wins. Bheem retrieves a jewel that Aswatthama owned, one that will protect “its wearer from weapons, disease, hunger” (308). Panchaali gives it to Yudhisthir to wear in his crown.
Chapter 39 Summary: “Ash”
After the cremation of the dead, the families of the fallen soldiers bring their ashes to the river Ganga and throw them in. Yudhisthir, depressed, remains by the Ganga for weeks. While Panchaali keeps him company, he continues to talk about Karna’s death. Panchaali brings him to Bheeshma in an attempt to make Yudhisthir honor his responsibilities. Krishna finally convinces him to go back to Hastinapur. When Yudhisthir’s coronation day arrives, Krishna sends cooks and servants to help make the celebration a success.
After the war, there are many widows who have to fend for themselves. Panchaali decides to form “a separate court, a place where women could speak their sorrows to other women” (323). Kunti, Gandhari, and Uttara help her by donating jewels and artifacts to the widows. Together, they help the women get back on their feet and form thriving businesses.
Chapter 40 Summary: “Snake”
Uttara gives birth to Pariksit, and Panchaali’s husbands “showered Pariksit with the frustrated fatherly love pent up in their hearts” (327). Pariksit becomes a favorite of the palace, and the Pandavas soon educate him to be a king. The sage, Vyasa, reveals his destiny, saying that he will be a powerful and virtuous king. However, he will insult a sage one day, and that sage will put a curse on him. After that, Pariksit can either pursue vengeance or seek forgiveness, which will influence the outcome of his life. Only Panchaali knows about Vyasa’s predictions, and she tries to discipline Pariksit when he is angry. The others indulge him. However, Pariksit develops into a well-mannered and gracious boy.
The blind king becomes increasingly withdrawn, and he decides to move into a hermitage. Both Gandhari and Kunti decide to go with him.
Chapter 41 Summary: “Reed”
A messenger arrives from Krishna’s kingdom of Dwarka, saying that the entire clan of Yadu has been annihilated. Panchaali suspects that this is the result of Gandhari’s curse. Arjun travels to Dwarka to find out what really happened and to bring Krishna’s widows back to Hastinapur. Panchaali knows “that Krishna was truly gone” when she sees crows attacking an eagle, and she is devastated (337).
Arjun returns with white hair and reports what he heard from Krishna’s charioteer, the lone survivor of the annihilation. According to the charioteer, all of the Pandu men went to the beach for a holiday, but got into an argument and ended up killing each other. Balaram went into a trance, and Krishna lied down in the grass, where he was killed by a hunter’s arrow. Arjun brings Krishna’s body back and burns it on a pyre as his wives look on. Some of them throw themselves onto the pyre as it burns.
Arjun leaves the city with Krishna’s widows. A tidal wave destroys Dwarka. Bandits attack the group and take all the women and money, so Arjun returns to Hastinapur alone. Yudhisthir says that it’s time for all of them to die.
Chapter 42 Summary: “Snow”
Panchaali and her husbands leave Hastinapur to die. They wear beaten tree bark and plan to walk “mahaprasthan, the path of the great departure” (344). It is a path through the Himalayas that contains a mountain peak where the earth meets the world of the gods. Only the holy can pass through on the path.
Panchaali’s husbands walk ahead of her on the path. She falls off the path and lands on a snow-covered rock, where she can hear her husbands talking. Yudhisthir says that every person falls off the path at a point that corresponds with their flaws. He says that Panchaali’s flaw is her love for Arjun, though Panchaali can tell that he is lying to keep everyone from discovering her love for Karna. Panchaali reveals that Yudhisthir will be the only one who makes it to the top and enters the gods’ court.
Chapter 43 Summary: “Fire”
In the last moments of Panchaali’s life, her “body […] seems to be fading, parts of it floating away: feet, knees, fingers, hair” (350). She thinks about Krishna, and he appears to her, encouraging her to think about happy moments from her life. She thinks of the time she handed him coconut water before he left her palace.
Panchaali has many other happy memories of Krishna. In one memory, she contemplated suicide during her year of hiding. She looked down at the street and saw a group of horsemen, one of whom was Krishna. Their shared look was a “current of consolation,” and it gave her the strength to survive (356).
Panchaali realizes that Krishna has always been with her. As she recalls the moment before she was born, she hears his voice urging her on, saying that it is time for her to go into the world. Krishna admits to his divinity and says that Panchaali is also divine. After that, she transitions into the afterlife, leaving her body behind. There, she sees all of her family members and is united with Karna.
Chapters 37-43 Analysis
Throughout these chapters, Panchaali continues to grow and expand as a character, settling into a more mature and expansive version of herself. As the war finally ends, Panchaali notes she “was no longer interested” (299). Up until this point, the war and vengeance were her primary driving forces. However, she finally realizes that the vengeance she desired will give her no real peace; only reuniting with her loved ones will do that. She notes, “I swore I’d be a better mother from now on, giving them all the attention they desired, repairing the relationship I’d sadly neglected these past years” (303). She wants to be more maternal and direct her attention towards her children. However, she is not able to do so when her sons are killed. Instead, she connects with the women in her community.
Prior to this revelation, Panchaali felt alone and separated from the women who surrounded her. Finally, she is able to connect with people who share her gender. When the war widows want to commit suicide, she says, “I spoke as a mother among mothers, and together we wept” (314). She is able to connect with them through something they have in common—motherhood. When she returns to Hastinapur, she enhances the women’s community by creating a court to address their problems and to help them survive without men. This selfless act snowballs, and Panchaali transcends all of her worldly desires by the end of the novel. She notes, “I am buoyant and expansive and uncontainable—but I always was so, only I never knew it!” (360). Here, she is not tied down by a lust for revenge or the constraints of her gender.
Nature is a significant motif in these chapters. The Pandavas have close ties to the land, but they disrespect it by destroying it during their battle. Panchaali observes, “The few remaining trees were leafless skeletons. There was no sign of the many birds and beasts that had roamed here peacefully just a few weeks ago” (300). To continue this process of destruction, they burn the dead bodies. Thus, the people become ash—a natural element. Next, “After the cremations, the remains are given to the Ganga” (319). Thus, the people give the remains of the dead back to the earth by pouring them into the river, the same one that birthed Bheeshma and carried Karna. Here, the characters’ relationship with nature is cyclical. Finally, when Panchaali and her husbands decide to die, they put on clothes made from beaten tree bark, the “attire of those who have renounced worldly life” (342). Here, they become like trees to connect more fully with nature, which helps them to complete the cycle of life and enter the afterlife.
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By Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni
