Sorites Svaanka
Readers on the MAYA Discord server began pulling at a curious thread. Are the Divyas a separate species, or not? If you haven't started reading the novel yet, here's some quick, relevant context. Several species, called svaanka, coexist on planet Neh (garudas, naags, vaanars, rakshasis, etc.) The Divyas are a small group of individuals with great power. They shape the fate of all living beings, and are revered by all those they govern.
(Chat excerpted with permission)
It started with MikaTanaka:
> I am not sure if this question belongs here or on the book discussion channel. Why are the Divyas listed as a separate svaanka in the glossary? From what i gather, svaanka is the umbrella term for all "intelligent" sapient-like species on Neh. Elsewhere in the book, the divyas are described with prefixes of what sounds like their original species. Garuda divya, vaanar divya, etc. So the Divyas are not a separate species, right? Am I missing something here? Also - absolutely loved the novel. Waiting for the audiobook for the reread.
freeishWill dug deeper into the novel's glossary:
> When in doubt, check the glossary. That's what I usually do lol. Found Two relevant entries. Svaanka entry says "Some believe the Divyas are a separate species." Then the Divya entry classifies the divyas as svaanka but also says "any svaanka may ascend to the status of a Divya". So yes, the glossary sounds like it is contradicting itself, but looks deliberate…
small\_G shared a speculation:
> I have a theory. It's a bit wild. When you win the Trials and become a Divya, you die first. Or something close to death like maybe the body that comes out on the other side is altered permanently. Even to the point that you are not the exact species you were born as before. That's what ascension means here perhaps. there's enough clues of this. The divyas are not mortal (you die once and then never again?). Their technology is so advanced. Panchamirt, their stead vaahanans, the divya maya itself, the council-room river thing. I think the Divyas choose to look like their original species, because it might be just comfortable. But maybe they dont need to. There's also one fully covered divya iirc. there has to be some non-standard body shape going on there.
Our Note
How many grains of sand does it take to make a dune? Let's say a billion. What happens if you remove a grain? Does it stop being a dune? No? Then it takes a billion minus one grains to make a dune. Remove another. Keep going. At what point does it stop being a dune?
When it stops looking like one.
The trick is in presenting it as a numerical category, whereas it's a perceptual one. The line drawn is a line of common agreement. And there lies the other trick, for common agreement is one damn hard thing.
On Neh, "svaanka" is a line like that. A rakshasi will tell you that anywhere from eight to fifteen species qualify as svaanka. A garuda will insist on strictly six. The bigger question then is: why does any of this matter?
When does someone become an adult? At 18? 21? 25? 42? The line is arbitrary, but it decides who can vote, who can own, who can be sentenced. Could we someday plug a person into a machine that reads their DNA, neural activity, hormone levels, prefrontal-cortex maturity, and arrive at a verdict on their adulthood? Maybe. (Would we want to though?) Until then, it is 18, or 21, or some random number that we agreed to call a dune.
There's this meme some of you will recall. The PETA poster asks, "Where do you draw the line?" Someone drew one. Presumably someone untroubled by moral doubt.
The line on the PETA poster decides who gets to live, and who becomes food.
The svaanka line decides who gets to be the rider and who is coerced into being the steed. Who can take from whom without it being called theft. No architect owes the bees a citation for the hexagon. Biomimicry can be patented, and calling it intellectual property theft would strike most of us as absurd. The bees may disagree, but they aren't the ones drawing the line.
All taxonomy is political. It boils down to who draws the line, and who is kept outside it.