When the verses in the Bhagavatam are counted, why do they turn out to be less than 18,000?

(I am grateful to H G Hari Parshad Prabhu for sharing the below answer with me which i have elaborated in the audio)

According to the Bengal born commentator, Sri Ganga Nath Sahay, in his commentary, Anvitartha Prakashika, it can be proved that Srimad Bhagavatam has 18000 “Slokas”. Sloka here means anuṣṭup chhanda. Anushtup chhanda means that which has 32 syllables. So if all the syllables of the bhagavatam were added (along with all the variant readings) and the sum total would be divided by 32, we would land up on a figure close to 18000.

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
very much this question has been asked by several devotees it is said that the number of verses in the Bhagavatam is 18000 but if we actually count it comes out to be much lesser how do we understand this answer we generally use the word verse in a very generic sense to refer to everything that is Sanskrit but actually speaking the word verse is a very rough translation and a Sanskrit word is shloka so when we use the word shloka shloka and verse are not equivalent shloka is a specific kind of Sanskrit construction which is technically called as Anushtubha which is in Anushtubhachanda a particular way it is decided and it consists of 32 syllables so the Bhagavad Gita verses are in Anushtubhachanda in contrast if we look at the Bhagavatam verses the Bhagavatam verses are not in Anushtubhachanda most of the verses are much longer and many of the 5th canto verses are actually in a prose form so we cannot actually decide although for the sake of convenience in numbering we use a particular numbering system and we call but then the division into verses is a little difficult there because there are no units of poetry over there they are just prose and moreover many of the previous Acharyas when they would refer to verses they generally would not refer to it by specific number they would Ata Bhagavata Ekadashi Adhyaya or Bhagavata Ekadashi Uddhaya Uddhava Vacha so in the 11th canto Uddhava is saying this so the numbering system has never been in the traditional scholarship the scholars would know the scripture so well that they did not need the specific numbers to find the verses so the numbering system would not be so precise or emphatic and it is not that the previous Acharyas in the past would not have noticed that the number is less than 18000 nor is it that though when the Bhagavatam is revealed some mistake was made actually the word that is used in Sanskrit wherever 18000 is referred to is referring to the Shlokas or Granthis which is the word that is used and these refer to units with 32 syllables so now if we divide the Bhagavatam into units of 32 syllables the figure will come out to be 18000 around about that and there are of course in a few places where some variant readings are there there is in fact a commentator a Bengali Vaishnava commentator Shri Ganganath Sahay and he has written a commentary called the Anivarth Prakashika and in that he has described this and I am grateful to His Grace Hari Parshit Prabhu for sharing this information with me and I have enclosed his mail also in this answer so the Bhagavatam has 18000 verses if we consider verses to be units of 32 syllables and divide the full length of the Bhagavatam by 32 by comprised in terms of syllables 32 syllables as one verse we will find it works out to 18000 our numbering system is of a recent historical origin the numbering system was not used by the previous Acharyas and it is our numbering system which is the issue over here because of which we feel that the Bhagavatam doesn’t have 18000 verses