I would uncover the story that lay invisible between the lines of the men's exploits." I would place the women in the forefront of the action. In an author's note she writes of how as a child reading the poem she told herself, "If I ever wrote a book. The Indian-born Divakaruni grew up on tales from the Mahabharat. Now we have The Palace of Illusions by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni, author of several award-winning and best-selling novels and a creative-writing professor at the University of Houston. This imbalance has piqued the interest of modern-day women writers and led to books - for example Anita Diamant's The Red Tent and Margaret Atwood's The Penelopiad - that give rightful voice to women lost in history's crevasses. Written in Sanskrit, it tells the story of two branches of an Indian dynasty, the Pandavas and the Kauravas, whose lives are consumed by a lifelong battle for the throne of Hastinapur, and some of its verses trace back to the sixth and fifth centuries B.C.E.įrom Gilgamesh to Hector, men rule the plotlines of ancient epics, while dutiful or vengeful women mark notches along the way. GARY FOUNTAIN/FOR THE CHRONICLEĪmong the greatest - and longest - epic poems of ancient literature is the Mahabharat. Facebook Twitter Email Born in India, author Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni teaches creative writing at the University of Houston.
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