In his Tattva Sandarbha, Srila Jiva Goswami gives a detailed description of the history of the Vedas, as a way to prove the validity and relevance of the Puranas. This is especially important for us since we accept the Srimad Bhagavatam as our main book of knowledge.
All the Vedas were originally spoken by Lord Brahma, who receives this knowledge directly from Krsna. Sometimes, the Vedic knowledge is stolen by certain demons, and Krsna comes to kill such demons and deliver back the Vedic knowledge to Brahma. One may question how a demon can steal the Vedic knowledge since knowledge is not a physical object that can be moved from one place to another. The point is that as we go to higher levels of existence, there is nothing “physical”, higher beings deal with subtle energies. When we take this into consideration, it’s not difficult to imagine that certain powerful subtle entities can steal the Vedic knowledge from Brahma, making him forget it. When this happens, Lord Vishnu intervenes, killing such demons and delivering the Vedic knowledge back to Brahma.
Srila Jiva Goswami describes that Brahma originally spoke the Puranas with one billion verses. In other words, the Puranas were originally much more extensive than the books we have access to nowadays. This original version of one billion verses is still studied on the celestial planets, but understanding that people in this age would have short memories and very little inclination or capacity to study such long treatises, Vyasadeva compiled the 18 Puranas by taking out only the most essential descriptions from the original Purana. This abridged version contains just 400,000 verses, but it still conveys all the original meaning.
Similarly, the Vedas were originally much more extensive, but Vyasadeva took just the most relevant parts, compiling the four Vedas, Upanisads, etc., and transmitting them to his disciples. It’s interesting to note that all Puranas deal with the same five basic subjects: primary and secondary creation, the genealogy of great personalities, the manus, and the history of the solar and lunar dynasties. The same pastimes and historical events are explained in all the different Puranas, but each Purana focuses on different details. This happens because all the Puranas came from a single narration (the original Purana of one billion verses) which was divided by Srila Vyasadeva into 18 books, classified according to the three modes of material nature.
For people in the mode of ignorance, there are the Shiva, Linga, Matsya, Kurma, Skanda, and Agni Puranas, who often recommend the worship of demigods with the goal of gradually elevating the reader to a pious platform. For people in mode of passion, there are the Brahma, Brahmanda, Brahmavaivarta, Markandeya, Bhavisya, and Vamana Puranas, who often emphasize fruitive activities mixed with spiritual knowledge, offering rewards to the reader in exchange for spiritual practice. Finally, for readers in the mode of Goodness, there are the Vishnu, Bhagavata, Garuda, Naradiya, Padma, and Varaha Puranas, which directly speak about devotional service to Lord Vishnu.
All the Puranas, including the ones for people in the mode of ignorance, contain spiritual knowledge (we can see that Prabhupada often quotes from the Skanda Purana, for example), it’s just that the Puranas in the mode of ignorance and passion also discuss other topics that are necessary to attract the attention of readers in the lower modes, while the sattvic puranas, especially the Srimad Bhagavam discuss directly about devotional service. Right in the opening verses of the Srimad Bhagavatam, Vyasadeva declares that “Completely rejecting all religious activities which are materially motivated, this Bhāgavata Purāṇa propounds the highest truth, which is understandable by those devotees who are fully pure in heart.”
The distribution of the different works of Vyasadeva is described in detail in the 12th canto of Srimad Bhagavatam, but we also find a short description in the 1st canto (4th chapter):
“The great sage, who was fully equipped in knowledge, could see through his transcendental vision the deterioration of everything material due to the influence of the age. He could also see that the faithless people in general would be reduced in duration of life and would be impatient due to lack of goodness. Thus he contemplated for the welfare of men in all statuses and orders of life.
He saw that the sacrifices mentioned in the Vedas were means by which the people’s occupations could be purified. And to simplify the process he divided the one Veda into four, in order to expand them among men. The four divisions of the original sources of knowledge [the Vedas] were made separately. But the historical facts and authentic stories mentioned in the Purāṇas are called the fifth Veda.
After the Vedas were divided into four divisions, Paila Ṛṣi became the professor of the Ṛg Veda, Jaimini the professor of the Sāma Veda, and Vaiśampāyana alone became glorified by the Yajur Veda. The Sumantu Muni Aṅgirā, who was very devotedly engaged, was entrusted with the Atharva Veda. And my father, Romaharṣaṇa, was entrusted with the Purāṇas and historical records.
All these learned scholars, in their turn, rendered their entrusted Vedas unto their many disciples, granddisciples and great-granddisciples, and thus the respective branches of the followers of the Vedas came into being. Thus the great sage Vyāsadeva, who is very kind to the ignorant masses, edited the Vedas so they might be assimilated by less intellectual men.
Out of compassion, the great sage thought it wise that this would enable men to achieve the ultimate goal of life. Thus he compiled the great historical narration called the Mahābhārata for women, laborers and friends of the twice-born.” (SB 1.4.17-25)
It’s interesting to note that the Srimad Bhagavatam was compiled two times, first as one of the 18 original Puranas, compiled by Vyasadeva before the Mahabharata and later as the Srimad Bhagavatam we have today, which was compiled much later, after the disappearance of Lord Krsna.
The story was that after compiling all the Vedas, including the original Bhagavata Purana (the Srimad Bhagavatam), the Mahabharata, and the Vedanta Sutra, Vyasadeva was still feeling dissatisfied, not having sufficiently described the glories of the Lord. At this point, Narada Muni appears and mildly chastizes him for having given too much importance to indirect topics in his previous works, and not having written a book that exclusively glorifies Krsna. After that, Vyasadeva proceeded to compile the second version of the Srimad Bhagavatam, an expanded version of the original Bhagavata Purana he had compiled earlier. This is explained by Srila Jiva Goswami in his Tattva-Sandarbha (verse 48):
“Śrila Vyasadeva experienced that this final goal [the bliss of pure love of God] is superior to even brahmananda, the happiness derived from realizing the impersonal aspect of the Supreme. This we know because Vyasadeva taught Sukadeva Gosvāmi Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam so he could taste the special bliss derived from love of Godhead, even though Sukadeva was already absorbed in brahmananda. Suta Gosvami states this in the verse beginning sa-samhitam [Bhag. 1.7.8]. In this verse the phrase kṛtvanukramya (“after compiling and revising”) indicates that Vyasadeva first wrote Srimad Bhagavatam in an abbreviated form and that later on, after being instructed by Śri Narada Muni, He expanded and rearranged it. Thus two apparently contradictory statements are reconciled-one found here [in the Bhagavatam] saying that the Bhagavatam was composed after the Mahabharata, and the other found elsewhere [the Skanda Purana, Prabhasa- khanda 2.94], saying that the Mahabharata was compiled after the eighteen Puranas. The word nivṛtti-nirata (“attached to renunciation”) implies that because of his absorption in the bliss of Brahman, Śri Sukadeva was living a life of complete renunciation, from which he never deviated.”
This Srimad Bhagavatam compiled by Srila Vyasadeva was then spoken to Sukadeva Goswami, who explained it to Pariksit Maharaja. The way self-realized souls perceive spiritual knowledge is different from ours. We are limited to understanding spiritual knowledge in a theoretical way, using our intelligence, but we can’t directly perceive it. We may study the pastimes of Krsna in Vrindavana, for example, but we can’t directly see these pastimes. Self-realized souls, however, are connected to the spiritual reality, and they can directly see these pastimes. When Sukadeva Goswami received the Srimad Bhagavatam from Vyasadeva, he not only received a set of verses but as a direct vision of the pastimes described there. When he sat to narrate the Srimad Bhagavatam to Maharaja Pariksit, he didn’t just repeat the original verses compiled by Srila Vyasadeva, but directly described the pastimes based on his spiritual vision as a direct witness. Both Vyasadeva and Narada Muni were present, hearing his description, and both became amazed as if hearing the Srimad Bhagavatam for the first time.
“Suka” means parrot. It’s described that when a parrot bites a mango, it becomes even sweeter than originally. Similarly, Sukadeva Goswami was able to make the Srimad Bhagavatam even sweeter by his recitation, even though it was already relishable by all classes of men.
Suta Goswami was also present at the assembly, and he later narrated the Srimad Bhagavatam to the sages in Naimisharanya, also adding his contribution, in the form of the first and last cantos, as well as a few supplementary explanations along the text. This final version of the Srimad Bhagavatam was then commented by many powerful acaryas through the centuries, culminating with the commentary of Srila Prabhupada, who studied all the previous works and wrote his own commentary, adding all the important details. The Srimad Bhagavatam we have in our hands is thus the fruit of the contribution of many generations of powerful acaryas, starting with Vyasadeva himself. By studying it, we can directly associate with all these powerful personalities.
Going back to the work of Vyasadeva in compiling the Vedas, another point to consider is that the Vedas are an extremely extensive mass of knowledge, that is available in toto only in the upper planets. Different parts of the Vedas and the Puranas appear and disappear on our planet due to the course of time, repeatedly being lost, and then restablished by great sages or demigods, who make different parts of the knowledge again known.
In The Bhagavad-Gita (4.1-3) Krsna explains how He originally transmitted the Bhagavad-Gita to Vivasvān, but after many millions of years thus line of succession had been broken, and thus he was transmitting it again to Arjuna, who was qualified to start a new disciplic line. Just like the Bhagavad-Gita, other portions of the Vedas exist eternally, but they become available of not in human society at different times.
At the end of Dwapara-Yuga, most of the Vedic knowledge had been forgotten, and thus Vyasadeva came to restore and organize this mass of knowledge, so it could become available to the people in Kali-Yuga.
Unfortunately, most of the original work of Vyasadeva is currently lost. We have access to just about 7% of the original verses compiled by him. However, this is not such a tragical loss as it may seem, because the Srimad Bhagavatam contains all the confidential meaning of the Vedas. Srila Vyasadeva wrote the Vedanta Sutra, giving the conclusions of the Vedas in a condensed form and the Srimad Bhagavatam is an elaboration of it. It’s not by chance that Srila Prabhupada spent so much of his effort writing his commentary on the Srimad Bhagavatam, forecasting that his commentary would become the most prominent book of knowledge during the Golden Age predicted by Lord Chaitanya.
Chronologically, Brahma spoke the Puranas, as well as all other Vedas at the beginning of his current day. An attentive reader may argue against the logic of such description, since the Vedas, and especially the Puranas describe many events that happened later. We are a little past mid-day inside the current day of Brahma, so how Brahma could know about events, incarnations, and pastimes that happened and will happen billions of years after he spoke the Vedas? The whole point is that Brahma is not a limited, conditioned being like us, but a purified soul who receives knowledge directly from Krsna. Even ordinary sages can often see the future, as well as the past, therefore it’s not difficult to accept that Krsna, being conscious of all events that happened as well as everything that will happen in the future can make this knowledge available to Lord Brahma. This also explains how the Puranas can describe future events (such as the prophecies for Kali-Yuga described in the Srimad Bhagavatam). Great sages like Srila Vyasadeva live in the eternal time, from where they have access to events that happened in both the past and future, just like we have access to all the events described in a book, being able to freely flip the pages back and forth.
When Brahma mistakenly takes Krsna as an ordinary boy and kidnaps his friends and calves, he does so under the influence of Yoga-Maya, who makes him forget so the pastime can happen, and not because he really doesn’t know.
Although lamentable, the fact that about 93% of the Vedic knowledge compiled by Vyasadeva was lost, it is actually not as tragic as it may seem, because the Srimad Bhagavatam includes all the important conclusions, that were made accessible to us by the commentaries of Srila Prabhupada. One who just studies and properly understands the Srimad Bhagavatam and the Bhagavad-Gita as it as receives all the important conclusions and will be armed with all the tools to find his or her way back to Godhead. Other books offer additional details, that elaborate and reinforce such conclusions, but the Srimad Bhagavatam in itself is complete.