Mūlasarvāstivāda and later Chinese texts such as the "Abhiniṣkramaṇa Sūtra" give two types of explanation for the long gestation period. The first type involves the karma of Princess Yaśodharā and Rāhula himself. According to this interpretation, Yaśodharā had to bear the suffering of carrying a child in her womb for six years, because in a previous life as a cow herder she had refused to help her mother to carry a pail of milk and left it for her mother to carry the extra pail for six leagues. As for Rāhula, his karma was that in a previous life as a king he unintentionally had a sage wait for six days. In this life, he was a king called Sūrya and his brother, a previous life of the Buddha, was a hermit called Candra or Likhita who had taken a vow he would only live from what was given by people. One day, the brother broke his vow to take some water, and feeling guilty, asked the king to punish him. The king refused to issue a punishment for such a trivial matter, but had his brother wait for his final decision and constrained in the royal gardens. After six days, the king suddenly realized he had forgotten about the hermit and immediately set him free, including apologies and gifts. As a result, Rāhula had to wait for six years before being born. In some versions, the king did not allow a sage to enter his kingdom and accumulated the same bad karma of a long gestation period. The later Mahāyāna commentary "Mahāprajñāpāramitāupadeśa" () does not blame Yaśodharā's karma for the six years gestation period, but does mention Rāhula's same karma as a king. However, in the 13th-century Japanese devotional text "Raun Kōshiki", Rāhula's late birth is seen as evidence of a miracle, rather than a result of karma.