Fiction as Mythology
A Creation Story Based on Literature
Before the first breath of time, there were the gods. Imperials they were called, and they had the power of creation. They built the universe, the earth, and everything on it.
The god Pappachi was tasked with the smallest creations, his last work was that of the moth. A wondrous creature which he regarded as his greatest success. Another god, Chor, working alongside Pappachi, realized that his works were far less impressive and he soon grew jealous.
When the humans were made and the lessons began, instructions on who to thank for the world they were given, Chor, who had made nothing of value, claimed Pappachi’s moth for himself. When the news got to Pappachi he was furious, he demanded Chor denounce his claim. But Chor refused and challenged Pappachi to fight. He knew himself to be the stronger between them, and with Pappachi’s defeat, Chor banished him and his wife Mammachi to earth.
Powerless, and forced to live with the reminder of his failure, Pappachi turned to Mammachi for revenge; he would beat her as he imagined beating Chor. Even so, she bore him two children. Chacko, the god of knowledge, and Ammu, the goddess of love.
In his son Chacko, Pappachi saw the hope of retribution, and he raised him with the purpose of grandeur. He saw no value in his daughter, however, and here too he inflicted his bitterness. Once strong enough she left her family, her loving nature had been tainted by her father, her godly powers damaged. She was now more mortal than deity. To spite her father she also married a mortal, Baba; and together they bore twins, Estha and Rahel. Their powers so diluted as to not even be considered gods.
During this time, Chacko was sent to study with the humans. He was meant to rise above them, to rule, to one day become the head of both gods and men. But he was distracted from this purpose, by a woman. Chacko met Margret and married her. Unlike his sister though, there was no defiance meant. Although Chacko did have doubts as to his purpose, his union with Margret was one of pure affection. An ironic difference from his sister’s union. With her, he had a child, Sophie, and she was of nearly the same power as her cousins.
Margret, being a mortal, found it difficult to sustain her attraction to Chacko. His ascendancy proved too strenuous to bear, and she left him for another man, taking their daughter. Chacko was distraught and in despair, and in this state, he too lost his powers. He returned home shortly and was reunited with his sister. Two lost souls seeking refuge in their prison. She had found Papa intolerable and left with her children. Pappachi had also died, his legacy never restored, his plan for vengeance withered out. There were no longer gods on earth.
However, unbeknownst to all, Pappachi’s sister, Baby, had been plotting her own revenge. Baby had killed Chor for causing the fall of her family. She had spent her time weaving into his life, asserting her influence, she was the goddess of deception after all. With his trust, she planned a gathering of the gods in his honor, and it was here that she used her powers to show them all he had done. In a toast, she had poisoned his cup, and with his shame, she claimed his life as fair payment.
The gods saw both Chor and Baby’s acts as unjust, so they banished her along with Chor’s remaining family, his son, Velutha, to earth. The Imperials, ridden of that strife, were now at peace.
So Baby lived with her family, Mammachi, Chacko, Ammu, Estha, and Rahel, in her brother’s old house. Velutha, innocent in every way, was allowed to work for Mammachi, a slight pitty was allotted him by her. He had wrongfully inherited the title “god of small things” from his father, but to the world, Chor now became known as the god of thieves, and his son’s title was ignored. He became known as untouchable, the greatest of insults, simply because of his father’s crime.
Years passed and nothing changed, immortals went about their mortal lives.
But one day, Chacko got word that Margret’s husband had died, and out of love, he invited her and his daughter to visit him. Mammachi and Baby had been holding out hope that Chacko would return to power and restore their families seat with the Imperials. And they saw this as an opportunity to start their ascension. Sophie was their target, the unwilling subject in their game.
They forced Ammu and her twins to play along and they started constructing their plan. Enchant Sophie until Chacko sees the delight of being with her in eternity. Sophie, however, saw through them. She may not be strong, but she is still the daughter of the god of knowledge, and she did not play along.
Ammu too was frustrated with her family; Mammachi, for once again obsessing over Chacko, ignoring her, and Chacko, for his obsession with Margret. She is the god of love and she knew their destinies did not lie together. She was also frustrated because secretly, she had developed a forbidden romance with Velutha. She loved him with all her being, but could never fully be with him. Her children also had a love for Velutha, but unlike her, they did not know what danger this love posed.
In the midst of the normalizing lives, and the steady advancement of Chacko’s strength and resolve, the danger soon became real. Mammachi and Baby found out about Ammu and Velutha, a goddess and an untouchable, and this time the ruin that followed was of their own doing. Furious, Baby locked Ammu in her room and confronted Velutha with Mammachi. The son of their enemy had slept with their blood and he must pay. They collected their rage in an attempt to preserve their legacy, ordering him to leave and never return.
Ammu, however, locked in her room, a powerless goddess, was enraged. Her family had once again turned against her. When her naive twins approached her she set all her anger upon them, which, sadly, set in motion yet another tragedy. The twins, convinced their mother no longer loved them, resolved to run away, and Sophie, sick of the adults anyway, decided to come along. A river they were never meant to cross, a capsized boat, Estha and Rahel swam to shore but Sophie did not. No powers from her ancestry saved her, and no Imperial even noticed.
With the death of Sophie, all hope of Chacko regaining power faded away. He never recovered, and with his emptiness, their family was now trapped forever. Baby was struck, everything she had worked for was taken away by just one act, of two people, the goddess of love and the god of small things. She needed vengeance.
Using the last of her powers she deceived the humans, Valutha had killed Sophie, and she turned Chacko against Ammu, she had abandoned her motherly duties. The people took care of Velutha, the innocent boy of an enemy, the god of small things, rightfully named the god of loss, they killed him.
Chacko’s rage burned in him, his daughter was dead and Ammu was not. He broke down the door to her room. Ammu did not see the god of knowledge, in fact, what she saw was no longer a god at all. He was something else, a monster. Ammu knew what he was and she accepted it. And he killed her.
The family had fallen. There was no redemption. It was all because of a moth.
— Based on the book The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy
