20.4 Of Animals in Heaven (KV20.4)

Controverted Point: That animals may be reborn among the devas.

Theravādin: Do you then imply that conversely devas are reborn as animals? Or that the deva-world is an animal kingdom? That there may there be found moths, beetles, gnats, flies, snakes, scorpions, centipedes, earthworms? You deny all this. Then you cannot maintain your proposition … .

Andhaka: But is not the wondrous elephant Erāvaṇa there, the thousand-wise yoked celestial mount?

Theravādin: But are there also elephant and horse stables there, and fodder and trainers and grooms? … .

The Points of Controversy, an English translation of the Pali Abhidhamma Kathāvatthu. Translated by Shwe Zan Aung and C.A.F. Rhys Davids. First published by Pali Text Society, 1915.

This SuttaCentral edition was prepared by Manfred Wierich and Ven. Vimala and proofread by Josephine Tobin. Some changes were introduced:

Abbreviations, i.e., those of cited works and the participants in the controversies, were expanded.

Cross-references were linked.

Some typographic changes were introduced, among others, i.e.: the phonetic symbol “ŋ” was changed to the Pāli diacritical letter “ṃ”, “ô” to “o”, single quotes to double quotes, and “:—” to “:”.

Letter-spacing with fixed spaces was replaced with bold font.

The corrigenda were merged into the text. Some could not be resolved, though.

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