150 



SAN SALVADOR 



SANSKRIT 



Nan Salvador, the capital of the republic- of 

 Salvador ( q. v. ), stands in tliu midst of a fertile pla- 

 teau, among green hills, and at the font of the ex- 

 tinct volriino of Sun Salvador (8360 feet). Immense 

 ravines, croRHed for the most part only by narrow 

 tracks, have been worn by streams in the surround- 

 ing plain, and serve as a protection to the city in 

 time of war. The houses are mostly of one story, 

 with walls built thick to resist the shocks of earth- 

 quake, and enclosing pleasant courts. The climate 

 is agreeable and healthy. The government huild- 

 ings are handsome, and the new cathedral promises 

 to be a splendid structure when finished. The 

 city, however, in spite of an excellent water-supply, 

 is tar from notable for its cleanliness. There is a 

 busy trade, and coffee is extensively cultivated on 

 the flanks of the volcano and in the surrounding 

 country. San Salvador was founded in 1528. In 

 1854 it was a fine, well-built city, adorned with 

 numerous splendid buildings, and containing a 

 population of more than 25,000 ; but on the night 

 of 16th April it was completely destroyed by an 

 earthquake. A town of Nueva San Salvador was 

 built 12 miles to the south west, and thither the 

 government removed until 18.18. Violent shocks 

 of earthquake have since visited tlie capital in 

 1873, 1879, and 1891. Pop. 30,000. San Salvador 

 is also one of the names tor Bahia (<j.v. ), and for 

 Cat Island in the Bahamas (q.v.). 



Nansanding, or SANS \M>H;, a town of Africa, 

 stand* on the left bank of the Niger, some 370 

 miles S\V. of Timbuktu, and is a place of some 

 commercial importance. Pop. 40,000. 



Sansculottes, i.e. ' without breeches,' was the 

 name given in scorn, at the beginning of the 

 French Kevolution, by the court party to the 

 democratic party in Paris. The latter accepted 

 the title witn pride, and used it as the distinctive 

 appellation of a 'good patriot.' According to the 

 current interpretation in England (as in Carlyle's 

 works), a sansculotte was a radical revolutionist 

 who made a point of neglecting his apparel, and 

 cultivating rough and cynical manners. But Littre 

 makes no mention of breechlessness in the sense of 

 raggedness in his definition of the word ; on the 

 contrary, he says that the sansculottes ' were so 

 called because they gave up the knee-breeches in 

 fashion during the ancien regime and took to wear- 

 ing trousers or pantaloons. ' 



San Srhiisl hiii. a fortress and seaport in the 

 north of Spain, 402 miles by rail NNE. of Madrid, 

 ami 11 miles from the French frontier. It is built 

 on a peninsula, stretching from the base of a 

 conical hill, Orgullo (400 feet), which is crowned 

 with a castle strong enough to be called the Cili- 

 raltar of the north of Spain. Since its almost total 

 destruction by the British, when they stormed it 

 under Wellington during the Peninsular war, the 

 town has lieen rebuilt on a regular plan. On the 

 west is a magnificent roadstead, well protected, 

 but difficult of access. It is bordered by a beauti- 

 ful shore, which, on account of it* suitability as 

 a watering-place, attracts many summer visitors, 

 especially from Madrid. Most of the loading ami 

 unloading is done at the more easily accessible 

 harbour of Pasages, 2J miles to the E. The IHO 

 ports are entered every year by some 1000 vessels 

 of 380,000 tons burden, bringing principally coal, 

 metals, lish, spirits, and yam, to the average value 

 of 672,000. The export* consist chiefly of wine, 

 minerals, textiles, and matches, ami average 

 1,140,000 in annual value. San Sebastian has 

 suffered from numerous sieges in the wars lietweeu 

 France and Spain. Pop. ( 1887 ) 29,047. 



Nan S-vrro, a city of Southern Italy, by rail 

 18 miles NW. of Koggia and 141 NE. of Naples, 

 Ww a fine cathedral. Pop. 19,786. 



Nanskrit (taiiukrita, ' perfected, ' ' poli>hcd '- 

 viz. stun, together or completely, = /<a, Kng. 

 'same,' and /.///, 'made,' proliahly connected 

 with I. at. creo) is the name of the ancient literary 

 language of India. It forms tin- easternmost 

 branch of the great ln<l ( lei manic ( Indo Knropean, 

 Aryan) stock of language*, and the one which, 

 thanks to its early literary cultivation (from r. 

 1500 B.C.) and grammatical fixation, and ite con- 



sequent transparency of structure and fullness of 

 form, approaches neareM to the parent language. 

 In some respects, however (notably in the reten- 



tion of a single a-vowel in place of the differen- 

 tiation into a, e, o, prevailing in the European 

 languages e.g. Sansk. bharantam = ^/xwra), the 

 primitive appearance of the Sanskrit, as of the 

 closely allied Iranian or Persic branch, is now 

 generally ascribed to a special Indo-Iranian de- 

 velopment, or to a later return to a phonetic 

 phase already outgrown by the- parent language at 

 the time of the separation. Whilst it is admitted 

 on all hands that the Aryan dialect out of which 

 the literary language of India has developed can- 

 not have Keen indigenous to the peninsula, but 

 must have been introduced from tlie north-east, 

 there is still considerable difference of opinion 

 as to the original home of the primitive Aryan 

 community whether it is to be sought for in Asia, 

 as used to be universally believed tin recent years, 

 or whether, as many scholars are now inclined to 

 think, it wax from gome part of Europe that the 

 Asiatic Aryans the Armenians anil Indo- Persians 

 originally came. On entering India, the Aryan 

 tribes found the country occupied by people of 

 dill'crent races ; but, favoured by physical and in- 

 tellectual superiority, they gradually succeeded in 

 extending their sway, as well as their language 

 and their social and religious institutions, over the 

 whole of Northern India. Owing, however, to 

 various causes, such as new political formations 

 or racial or tribal differences in the population 

 absorbed by the ruling race, local dialects gradu- 

 ally sprang up within this area, which eventually 

 developed into the modern vernaculars of Northern 

 and Western India. See INDIA, Vol. VI. pp. 101-2. 

 Although the term Sanskrit, as the ' perfected ' 

 language, properly speaking only belongs to the 

 grammatically fixed form of the language which 

 was employed from about the 4th or 5th century 

 B.C., and which came more and more to assume 

 the character of a mere literary and learned idiom, 

 it is usual to extend the term so as to include an 

 earlier form of the same language used in the 

 Vedic writings, and hence often called Yedic 

 Sanskrit. The two phases of the language show- 

 considerable differences, as regards both vocabulary 

 and grammar. The vocabulary of the older lan- 

 guage includes numerous words which are no longer 

 used in classical Sanskrit, and the very meaning 

 of which had often become unknown ; whilst, on 

 the other hand, many of the commonest words 

 of the later language are not found in the Vedic 

 writings. As regards the inflectional system, the 

 original wealth of grammatical forms has become 

 considerably reduced in the later phase of the 

 language. Thus, whilst the classical Sanskrit has 

 but a single infinitive in turn I icing the accusative 

 case of a verbal abstract noun in In. an<l corre- 

 sponding to the Latin first supine (ag. Sansk. <l<it<nii, 

 i/iil-luin = Lat. (/iltiim, jinirhim) the Vedic Sans- 

 krit also makes use for the same purpose of differ- 

 ent case-forms of quite a number of verbal noun- 

 stems, several of which occur again with a similar 

 function in one or other of the allied languages 

 e.g. Sansk. m'dmane = l&iuvcu ; Sansk. ddvnne = 

 Soffoeu, SOVKU ; Sansk. jSvase = Lat. rini-i . Sansk. 

 bharadhtiai = 04*<r0cu. Similarly the subjunctive 

 mood, which formed a regular feature of the Indo 



