In Chinese and Japanese versions of the Lotus Sutra and in translations from Chinese, the stories of Devadatta and the dragon princess comprise Chapter 12, while in Indian versions they appear at the end of the previous chapter. This gives a stronger impression of the chapter being an interruption of the longer story that begins in Chapter 11 with the emergence from the ground of the Stupa of Abundant Treasures Buddha. Originally these two stories may have circulated independently of the Lotus Sutra as one or two different texts. Putting them in a separate chapter in this way gives more emphasis and importance to them.

Superficially there is not much reason for these two stories to be together. In terms of characters, they have nothing in common. What makes sense – both in terms of their being together in one chapter and of the chapter being inserted at this point in the Sutra – is the teaching of universal awakening found throughout the Lotus Sutra. The chapter reinforces the idea that there can be no exception to the teaching that everyone is to some degree on the bodhisattva path to becoming a buddha – including those regarded as evil, and even women, who too often in India were regarded as inherently evil.