śíphā f. a fibrous or flexible root (used for making whips &c.), [Mn. ix, 230]
a lash or stroke with a whip or rod, [ib.] [viii, 369]
N. of a river, [RV.] ([L.] also ‘a branch; a river; a mother; a tuft of hair on the crown of the head; the root of a water-lily; spikenard; turmeric; a sort of dill or fennel’).