Sansin.

1882 E. J. Gunthorpe Notes on Criminal Tribes xiii. 78 Kunjurs are..a branch of the great family of Sansya robbers, who claim their descent from Sainsmull.

1883 D. C. J. Ibbetson Outl. Panjáb Ethnogr. vi. 311 The thieving Sánsis are said to admit any caste to their fraternity except the Dhedhs and Mhangs; and the man so admitted becomes..a Sánsi.

1896 W. Crooke Tribes & Castes N.-W. Provinces & Oudh IV. 277 Sânsiya. A vagrant thieving tribe... Of their name no satisfactory account has been given. Some derive it from the Sanskrit svâsa, ‘breathing’, or srasta, ‘separated’, others with svagâ nika, ‘one who has to do with dogs’, or svapâka, ‘dog~cooking’, a person of a degraded and outcaste tribe, who, by the older law, was required to live outside towns, to eat his food in broken vessels, to wear the clothes of the dead, and to be excluded from all intercourse with other people... The Sânsiya is no doubt the near kinsman of the other degraded wandering races who occupy the same part of the country, such as the Kanjar.

1901 R. Kipling Kim iv. 86 They meet a troop of long-haired, strong~scented Sansis, with baskets of lizards and other unclean food... The Sansi is deep pollution.

1931 E. A. H. Blunt Caste System N. India ix. 149 The Beriya, Bhantu, Habura, Karwal, and Sansiya..may be regarded as offshoots of a single nomadic race.

1972 S. R. Sharma in F. Singh Hist. Punjab III. xvi. 366 Prostitution had come to be associated with certain castes—Kanjai, Bangali, Sansi and Pema.