Hobson-Jobson: A Glossary of Colloquial Anglo-Indian Words and Phrases, and of Kindred Terms, Etymological, Historical, Geographical and Discursive c10.13072

c10.13072

SANSKRIT, s. The name of the classical language of the Brahmans, *Samskrita*, meaning in that language 'purified' or 'perfected.' This was obviously at first only an epithet, and it is not of very ancient use in this specific application. To the Brahmans Sanskrit was the *bhāsha*, or language, and had no particular name. The word Sanskrit is used by the proto-grammarian Pāṇini (some centuries before Christ), but not as a denomination of the language. In the latter sense, however, both 'Sanskrit' and 'Prakrit' (*Pracrit*) are used in the *Brihat Samhitā* of Varāhamihira, c. A.D. 504, in a chapter on omens (lxxxvi. 3), to which Prof. Kern's translation does not extend. It occurs also in the *Mrichch'hakaṭikā*, translated by Prof. H. H. Wilson in his *Hindu Theatre*, under the name of the 'Toy-cart'; in the works of Kumārila Bhaṭṭa, a writer of the 7th century; and in the *Pāṇinīyā Śikshā*, a metrical treatise ascribed by the Hindus to Pāṇini, but really of comparatively modern origin.