I'm halfway through Divakaruni's novel now. Overall, I'm enjoying it, though knowing what's coming it's more of an appreciation of how the characters develop and the story is explored rather than an oh-gosh-isn't-this-just-fun feeling. There's this dark undercurrent coming through beneath the narrative that I don't really want to see fully unveiled.
Part D covers a lot of ground in not a lot of pages. The Pandavas' fantastic palace is built, Draupadi has her five sons, and at least ten years go by. I think this period could probably have a novel of its own about all the court intrigues and drama going on, a la The Tudors and similar shows about the royal and wealthy that are currently popular. Unfortunately, there's not space for all that here, not to mention it would be a significant departure into sideplots off of the main epic frame.
Still, it's weird how little attention is given to some parts of this time. It looks like the episode of Arjun being exiled for walking in on Draupadi and her husband of the year is completely left out, and while Draupadi mentions having sons and them later being raised by Arjun's favorite wife, she largely ignores that she has children. There's so much going on in the source material that could be developed into fully fleshed-out stories, but I guess those would relate more to an entire series of novels rather than just this one.
Krishna orders Mayasura to build Pandavas' palace
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