1318.—"But there is another language, more select than the other, which all the Brahmans use. Its name from of old is Sahaskrit, and the common people know nothing of it."—Amīr Khusrū, in Elliot, iii. 563.
1586.—"Sono scritte le loro scienze tutte in una lingua che dimandano Samscruta, che vuol dire 'bene articolata': della quale non si ha memoria quando fusse parlata, con avere (com' io dico) memorie antichissime. Imparanla come noi la greca e la latina, e vi pongono molto maggior tempo, si che in 6 anni o 7 sene fanno padroni: et ha la lingua d'oggi molte cose comuni con quella, nella quale sono molti de' nostri nomi, e particularmente de numeri il 6, 7, 8, e 9, Dio, serpe, et altri assai."—Sassetti, extracted in De Gubernatis, Storia, &c., Livorno, 1875, p. 221.
c. 1590.—"Although this country (Kashmīr) has a peculiar tongue, the books of knowledge are Sanskrit (or Sahanskrit). They also have a written character of their own, with which they write their books. The substance which they chiefly write upon is Tūs, which is the bark of a tree,[[237]] which with a little pains they make into leaves, and it lasts for years. In this way ancient books have been written thereon, and the ink is such that it cannot be washed out."—Āīn (orig.), i. p. 563; [ed. Jarrett, ii. 351].
1623.—"The Jesuites conceive that the Bramenes are of the dispersion of the Israelites, and their Bookes (called Samescretan) doe somewhat agree with the Scriptures, but that they understand them not."—Purchas, Pilgrimage, 559.
1651.—"... Souri signifies the Sun in Samscortam, which is a language in which all the mysteries of Heathendom are written, and which is held in esteem by the Bramines just as Latin is among the Learned in Europe."—Rogerius, 4.
In some of the following quotations we have a form which it is difficult to account for:
c. 1666.—"Their first study is in the Hanscrit, which is a language entirely different from the common Indian, and which is only known by the Pendets. And this is that Tongue, of which Father Kircher hath published the Alphabet received from Father Roa. It is called Hanscrit, that is, a pure Language; and because they believe this to be the Tongue in which God, by means of Brahma, gave them the four Beths (see [VEDA]), which they esteem Sacred Books, they call it a Holy and Divine Language."—Bernier, E.T. 107; [ed. Constable, 335].
1673.—"... who founded these, their Annals nor their Sanscript deliver not."—Fryer, 161.
1689.—"... the learned Language among them is called the Sanscreet."—Ovington, 248.
1694.—"Indicus ludus Tchûpur, sic nominatus veterum Brachmanorum linguâ Indicè dictâ Sanscroot, seu, ut vulgo, exiliori sono elegantiae causâ Sanscreet, non autem Hanscreet ut minus recte eam nuncupat Kircherus."—Hyde, De Ludis Orientt., in Syntagma Diss. ii. 264.