The Concept of Intermediate Existence in the Early Buddhist Theory of rebirth

This article investigates the concept of intermediate existence in the early Buddhist theory of rebirth. The main sources investigated for this article are the Pali canonical and commentarial literature. My main thesis is that early Buddhist discourses contain instances that suggest a spatial-temporal gap between death and rebirth known as 'intermediate existence' (antarabhava), in contrast to the idea of Theravada Buddhist theory that rebirth takes place immediately without a spatial-temporal gap. In order to prove this, I argue that the 'one who liberates in interval' (anaraparinibbayi) attains Nibbana in the intermediate existence and the concept of gandhabba in early Buddhist discourses refers to a being in intermediate existence, not to a dying consciousness (cuti-vinnana), and there are indirect inferences to an spatiotemporal gap between death and rebirth in the early Buddhist discourses.