Sansan'nah (Heb. Sansamiah', tliCSD, palm- branch; Sept. Saj'crni'i'a v. r. SfSfj'i'a/c), a town in the southern part of the territory of .Judah (Josh, xv, 31). The corresponding lists of Simeon (Josh, xix, 5; I Chron. iv, 31) seem to call it Hazar-sitsah (q. v.). It is identified by Schvvarz with the village of Sinisum, on a river of the same name, north-east of Gaza — a position which he acknowledges, however, to be rather in the lowlands than in the south of Judah {Palest. p. 101, 123); but the boundary-line can easily be ac- commodated to this location. See Judah, Tribe of. Wilton would identify it with the Wady es-Suny men- tioned by Kobinson {Bibl. Pes. i, 299, 300), not far south of (iaza, which he supposes to have been the first resting-place for horses after leaving Gaza on the way to Egypt; and he thinks a confirmation is foinid for this in the circumstance that various travellers, in pass- ing north from Egypt, have noticed that they first met with horses about that locality {Necjeh, p. 210). Lieut. Conder thinks {Tent-Work in Palest, ii, 339) that it was at Beit-susin, east of the valley of Sorek ; but this could not possibly have been within the territory of Simeon.
Sansbury (Sandsbury, or Sansbry). John, a native of London, entered St. Jolm's College, Oxford, in 1593, aged seventeen ; vicar of the Church of St. (iiles, Oxford, in 1607; bachelor of divinity in 1608; buried in Jan., 1609. He wrote. Ilium in Italiam: — Oronia ad Protectionem Reyis sui Omnium Op/imi Filia, etc. (Oxon, 1608, 16mo).— Allibone, Diet, of Authors, s. v.
Sanscara, or Sanskara (Sanscrit, completing'), the name of one of the ten essential rites or ceremonies of the Hindus of the first three castes. They are the
SANSCRIT VERSIONS
349
SAXTALI VERSION
ceremonies to be performed before and at the birth of a cliikl; of naminj^ the child on the tenth, eleventh, or one-hundred-and-lirst day; of carrying the child out to see the moon on the third lunar day of the third light fortnight, or to see the sini in the third or fourth month ; of feeding him in the sixth or eighth month (or at other stated periods); the ceremony of the tonsure in the second or third year; of investiture with the string in the fifth, eighth, or sixteenth year, when he is hand- ed to a guru to become a religious student; and the ceremony of marriage, after he has completed his studies and is tit to perform the sacrifices ordained by the sacred writings. — Chumhers's Encycloji. s. v.
Sanscrit Versions. A translation of the New Test, into the Sanscrit, the ancient and classical lan- guage of India, was commenced in the year 1803 and finished at the press in 1808. The man who had im- mortalized his name by this translation was the well- known Dr. Carey (q. v.). He had also commenced a translation of the Old Test., when the disastrous fire at Seramjiore in 1812 interrupted his labors, destroying not only a dictionary of the Sanscrit and various Indian dialects, but also his MSS. of the second book of Sam- uel and the first book of Kings. In 1815 Dr. Carey re- ceived an associate in Dr. Yates, and both carried on the work of translating the Old Test., which was finally com- pleted in 1822. In 1820 a second edition of the New Test, was undertaken at Serampore, the former edition, consisting of only fiOO copies, having been completely exhausted. In 1827 a second edition of the Old Test. was in press, but various circumstances retarded its com- pletion, and in 1834 the impression had been struck off only as far as the first book of Kings. As the first at- tempt of translating could onh- be defective, especially when undertaken at a period when the language had been little studied by Europeans, and no printed copies of the standard works were in existence, a statement as to the desirableness of a new and a more polished trans- lation was laid before the committee of the Society for the Promotion of Christian Knowledge in 1835. The committee entered into communication on the subject with the bishop of Calcutta, and the new translation was imdertaken by Dr. Yates, formerly the associate of Dr. Carey, upon whom the mantle of the venerable translator seemed to have fallen. Dr. Yates began the work in 1840 by the publication of the Psalms; in 1844 the Gospels were completed; and in 1846 the Proverbs and the New Test, were in the press. While prosecut- ing his work. Dr. Yates was overtaken bj' death in 1845. On examining the state of the version, it was found that the books of Genesis, Psalms, Proverbs, and Isaiah had all passed through the i)ress, and that the rest of the Pentateuch, and the books of Job, Ecclesiastes, Canticles, and Daniel, had been prepared in MS. The work was now committed to the Kev. Mr. Wenger, the translator into the Bengalee, and in 1852 the second volume of the Old Test., containing the historical books from .Judges to Esther inclusive, was completed. In 1858 a third volume, bringing the translation up to the Song of Solomon, was finished; in 1863 the translation was continued as far as the end of Isaiah ; ^.nd in 1873 the translation of the whole liible was announced as completed. Besides the translation into Sanscrit [irop- er, there exist versions into