Dear Bhante,

> I wish all who were interested in this debate could read
> Wijesekera's article, for it would really dispell a lot of this
> confusion. It is quite remarkeable how the Vedic antecedents in this
> case parallel the Buddhist usages. The Buddhist texts present us
> with a variety of uses of gandhabba, which seem difficult to
> reconcile or make sense of, especially the passage with the 'three
> conditions'. But with the Vedic background we can easily see how
> these concepts are related. The whole web of interrelated ideas is
> too complex to spell out in detail but we can note just one
> reference: Rig Veda 10.177.2 speaks of the 'gandharva in the womb'.

Thank you, this is clear to me. Another question, though: if the
"gandharva" is in the womb as well, is it really referring to an
antarabhava?

Respectfully yours,

Yuttadhammo