King Suddhodana sends envoys, and Kāḷudāyī urges the Buddha to return home

The year of the return home (2): the Saṅghabhedavastu of the Chinese Mūlasarvāstivāda Vinaya says the Buddha returned home six years after the Awakening; the Buddha biography Fangguang da zhuangyan jing says King Suddhodana “heard that his son had attained the path six years ago”; the Buddha biography Fo benxing ji jing says Rāhula had just turned six at the time of the return, which corresponds to about six years after the Awakening, and the same work also records a view giving the seventh year after the Awakening. Source text

The year of the return home (3): the Buddha biography Puyao jing records King Suddhodana saying “for twelve years”; the Chinese Shi'er you jing lists the return under the twelfth year; the Chinese Zhuanji baiyuan jing and the Mūlasarvāstivāda Vinaya also have the twelve-year account.

Place and circumstances: the later commentaries of the Southern tradition, the Chinese Zhong benqi jing and others say the envoys saw the Buddha in the Bamboo Grove at Rājagaha; the Saṅghabhedavastu of the Mūlasarvāstivāda Vinaya and the Tibetan Vinaya place it at the Jetavana in Sāvatthī (the capital of Kosala; the park donated to the Sangha by Anāthapiṇḍika), and say it was a letter from the king of Kosala that let King Suddhodana know his son had awakened; most accounts say the Buddha promised to arrive in seven days.