Sanskrit

Noun

शाखा • ‎(śā́khā) f

1. branch (literally and figuratively)
   • RV 7.43.1

     पर वो यज्ञेषु देवयन्तो अर्चन दयावा नमोभिः परिथिवी इषध्यै |

     येषां बरह्माण्यसमानि विप्रा विष्वग वियन्ति वनिनो न शाखाः ||

     pra vo yajñeṣu devayanto arcan dyāvā namobhiḥ prithivī iṣadhyai |

     yeṣāṃ brahmāṇyasamāni viprā viṣvagh viyanti vanino na śākhāḥ ||

     SING out the pious at your sacrifices to move with adorations Earth and Heaven-

     The Holy Singers, whose unmatched devotions, like a tree's branches, part in all directions.

2. a limb of the body, arm or leg
3. finger
4. the surface of the body
5. a door-post (compare द्वारशाखा ‎(dvāra-śākhā))
6. the wing of a building
7. division, subdivision
8. the third part of an astrological संहिता ‎(saṃhitā) (also शाखास्कन्ध ‎(śākhā-skandha), m.)
9. shakha: a branch or school of the Veda (each school adhering to its own traditional text and interpretation)
10. a branch of any science
11. = पाक्षान्तर ‎(pā-kṣā-ntara)
12. = अन्तिक ‎(antika)

Declension

References

• Sir Monier Monier-Williams (1898) A Sanskrit-English dictionary etymologically and philologically arranged with special reference to cognate Indo-European languages, Oxford: Clarendon Press, page 1062