(ā), f. See next.
śā́khā f. (ifc. f(A or I). ) a branch (lit. and fig.), [RV.] &c. &c.
a limb of the body, arm or leg, [Suśr.]
a finger, [Naigh. ii, 5]
the surface of the body, [Car.]
a door-post, [VarBṛS.] (cf. dvāra-ś°)
the wing of a building, [MārkP.]
a division, subdivision, [MBh.]; [BhP.]
the third part of an astrological Saṃhitā (also °khā-skandha, m.), [VarBṛS.]
a branch or school of the Veda (each school adhering to its own traditional text and interpretation; in the Caraṇa-vyūha, a work by Śaunaka treating of these various schools, five Śākhās are enumerated of the Ṛg-veda, viz. those of the Śākalas, Bāṣkalas, Āśvalāyanas, Śāṅkhāyanas, and Māṇḍukāyanas; forty-two or forty-four out of eighty-six of the Yajur-veda, fifteen of which belong to the Vājasaneyins, including those of the Kāṇvas and Mādhyaṃdinas; twelve out of a thousand said to have once existed of the Sāma-veda and nine of the Atharva-veda; of all these, however, the Ṛg-veda is said to be now extant in one only, viz. the Śākala-śākhā, the Yajur-veda in five and partially in six, the Sāma-veda in one or perhaps two, and the Atharva-veda in one: although the words caraṇa and are sometimes used synonymously, yet caraṇa properly applies to the sect or collection of persons united in one school, and to the traditional text followed, as in the phrase śākhām adhīte, he recites a particular version of the Veda), [Prāt.]; [Mn.]; [MBh.] &c.
a branch of any science, [Car.]
a year, [Śrīkaṇṭh.]
= pakṣāntara, [L.]
= antika, [L.]