འཕགས་པ་རྒྱལ་བའ་བླ་གྲས་ཞས་བྱ་བ་ཐག་པ་ཆན་པའ་མད notes.11

notes.11

11. As detailed by Schopen (2004, p 397), narrative elements appear to carry great weight for some scholars but “we know next to nothing for certain about how early texts were redacted and transmitted” (ibid, p 399). The rules for redaction in the Mūla­sarvāstivāda Vinaya “clearly favor Śrāvastī” as the setting. Both Rājagṛha and Śrāvastī are among the six great cities recommended as a location if the setting is forgotten. Schopen provides analysis of occurrences noting that Gokhale records a 75% occurrence of Sāvatthi in Pāli texts, Minh Chang records a 45% occurrence in the Chinese Madhyama-āgama, and Schopen himself estimates an 80% occurrence rate for Śrāvastī in the Mūla­sarvāstivāda Vinaya. Currently known redaction rules applied to sūtras, therefore, place the location in Śrāvastī more frequently than would otherwise be expected.