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BOOK IV
1. Details are as follows:
Q. Bhante! Where is Soma, the capital city of Mahārāja Soma, the Lokapāla of Iśānendra ?
A. Gautama! Soma is exactly beneath the great vimana Sumana. Its details are the same as those of the capial city of Vijayadeva in the Jivābhigama Sutra. Each one of the four capital cities has the same description.
According to the samgrahaṇī gāthās of the Dvipa-sāgara Prajñapti, the capital cities of the Lokapālas of both Sakrendra and Isanendra, four in each case, are located in the eleventh Kuṇḍalavara Island. There seems to be a little confusion. Just as the principal Consorts of Sakrendra and Isanendra have their cities in Nandiśvara Island, so the cities described in the Prajñapti appear to belong to the principal Consorts of the aforesaid Lokapālas, and not to the Lokapālas themselves.
2. The relevant portion of Chapter Seventeen of the Pannavaṇā Sūtra reads as follows:
Q. Bhante! Are infernal beings alone born among the infernal beings, or are non-infernal beings born among the infernal beings.
A. Gautama! Only infernal beings are born among the infernal beings; non-infernal beings are not born among the infernal beings.
An animal or a man who, after death, is to be born among the infernal beings has ended the span of animal or human life (as the case may be) at death. Hereafter, he has with him only one life-span which is the life-span as an infernal being. The infernal life-span starts at the end of the animal