Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam is one of the eighteen Purāṇas, but Srila Vyasdeva wrote it after compiling the essence of the Vedas in the Vedānta-sūtra and also composing the Mahābhārata and Purāṇas. But, one might ask, if the eighteen Purāṇas had already been compiled, does this make Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam the nineteenth Purāṇa?

Srila Jiva Goswami explains in Tattva Sandharbha that this is not the case. Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam appeared first to Srila Vyasa in a concise and subtle form, as one of the eighteen Purāṇas. Srila Vyasa composed the Vedāntasūtra on the basis of this first edition of the Bhāgavatam. Later, when He sat in trance in pursuance of Nārada Muni’s order, the expanded form of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam was revealed to Him as the natural commentary on the Vedānta-sūtra. Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam and the Vedāntasūtra share the same subject, the Absolute Truth, and ...