Week 7 Reading: Palace of Illusions / Mahabharata (Part C)

Palace of Illusions by Chitra Divakaruni
(all notes so far)

12 Song. The bards sing the song of swayamvara, but from Draupadi's point of view, it's different: she felt like she had to insult Karna to save Dhri's life: I like Draupadi telling about herself in the third-person (from the bards), and then telling in first-person like she remembered it.
I don't blame the bards for what they sing. In a way, things occurred just as they describe it. But in another way, they were completely different.

(Victoria and Albert Museum)

13 Scar. This is how she recognizes Arjuna in his brahmin disguise: he has battle scars.

14 Brinjal. This back-and-forth between Kunti and Draupadi about making the brinjal curry was really well done! (I love eggplant.)

(brinjal curry)

15 Lac. Draupadi dreams about the house of lac, from the insect point of view. Intense! I had never heard of lac bugs before.
From Etymonline.com:
also shell lac, 1713, from shell (n.) + lac. Translates French laque en écailles "lac in thin plates." Commercially, lac was considered as stick lac (still on the twigs, insects and all), seed-lac (resin without the twigs and insects, partly processed), and fully processed plates of shell lac.

16 Boon. The boon is her virginity renewed each time she switched husbands. And she knows about Gandhari's boon too: ... some god, pleased by Gandhari's devotion to her husband, had granted her a boon. If she ever took off her blindfold and lookedat someone, she could heal him—or burn him to cinders.

17 Grandfather. The portrait of Bhishma is so sympathetic, and the Pandavas' love for him here is going to give a lot of dramatic intensity to the stories to come. He fills their childhood hunger, and, as Draupadi observes: Your childhood hunger is the one that never leaves you.

18 River. I really like this visit with Bhishma along the river! Bhishma says of the river / his mother:
“The river holds many memories. She offers to you the ones you most long to know. But she's tricky like her currents. Sometimes she shows you what you wish to see, and not the actual truth.”