Text-04-09
SB 12.13.4-9
brahmam dasa sahasrani
padmam pañcona-sasti ca
sri-vaisnavam trayo-vimsac
catur-vimsati saivakam
dasastau sri-bhagavatam
naradam pañca-vimsati
markandam nava vahnam ca
dasa-pañca catuh-satam
catur-dasa bhavisyam syat
tatha pañca-satani ca
dasastau brahma-vaivartam
laingam ekadasaiva tu
catur-vimsati varaham
ekasiti-sahasrakam
skandam satam tatha caikam
vamanam dasa kirtitam
kaurmam sapta-dasakhyatam
matsyam tat tu catur-dasa
ekona-vimsat sauparnam
brahmandam dvadasaiva tu
evam purana-sandohas
catur-laksa udahrtah
tatrastadasa-sahasram
sri-bhagavatam isyate
Translation:
The Brahma Purana consists of ten thousand verses, the Padma Purana of fifty-five thousand, Sri Visnu Purana of twenty-three thousand, the Siva Purana of twenty-four thousand and Srimad-Bhagavatam of eighteen thousand. The Narada Purana has twenty-five thousand verses, the Markandeya Purana nine thousand, the Agni Purana fifteen thousand four hundred, the Bhavisya Purana fourteen thousand five hundred, the Brahma-vaivarta Purana eighteen thousand and the Linga Purana eleven thousand. The Varaha Purana contains twenty-four thousand verses, the Skanda Purana eighty-one thousand one hundred, the Vamana Purana ten thousand, the Kurma Purana seventeen thousand, the Matsya Purana fourteen thousand, the Garuda Purana nineteen thousand and the Brahmanda Purana twelve thousand. Thus the total number of verses in all the Puranas is four hundred thousand. Eighteen thousand of these, once again, belong to the beautiful Bhagavatam.
Purport:
Srila Jiva Gosvami has quoted from the Matsya Purana as follows:
astadasa puranani
krtva satyavati-sutah
bharatakhyanam akhilam
cakre tad-upabrmhitam
laksanaikena tat proktam
vedartha-paribrmhitam
valmikinapi yat proktam
ramopakhyanam uttamam
brahmanabhihitam tac ca
sata-koti-pravistarat
ahrtya naradenaiva
valmikaya punah punah
valmikina ca lokesu
dharma-kamartha-sadhanam
evam sa-padah pañcaite
laksas tesu prakirtitah
“After compiling the eighteen Puranas, Vyasadeva, the son of Satyavati, composed the entire Mahabharata, which contains the essence of all the Puranas. It consists of over one hundred thousand verses and is filled with all the ideas of the Vedas. There is also the account of the pastimes of Lord Ramacandra, spoken by Valmiki — an account originally related by Lord Brahma in one billion verses. That Ramayana was later summarized by Narada and related to Valmiki, who further presented it to mankind so that human beings could attain the goals of religiosity, sense gratification and economic development. The total number of verses in all the Puranas and itihasas (histories) is thus known in human society to amount to 525,000.”
Srila Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura points out that in the First Canto, Third Chapter, of this work, after Suta Gosvami lists the incarnations of Godhead, he adds the special phrase krsnas tu bhagavan svayam: “But Krsna is the original Personality of Godhead.” Similarly, after mentioning all of the Puranas, Sri Suta Gosvami again mentions the Srimad-Bhagavatam to emphasize that it is the chief of all Puranic literatures.