Mokkhacika (masculine or °ā feminine) [see on attempt at etymology Morris in JPTS 1885, 49 who takes mokkha as from muc "tumbling" and cika = "turning" from cak = cik. The word remains obscure, it must be a dialectical expression, distorted by popular analogy and taken perhaps {542} from a designation of a place where these feats or toys had their origin. More probable than Morris' etymology is an analysis of the word (if it is Aryan) as mokkha = mokkha 2 , in meaning "head, top," so that it may mean "head over," top-first" and we have to separate *mokkhac-ika the °ika representing °iya "in the manner of, like" and -ac being the adverb of direction as contained in Sanskrit prāñc = pra-añc.] tumbling, turning somersaults, an acrobatic feat; in list of forbidden amusements at D I 6 (cf. Sv I 86; samparivattaka-kīḷanaṃ, i.e. playing with something that rolls along, continuously turning? The following sentence however seems to imply turning head over heels: "ākāse vā daṇḍaṃ gahetvā bhūmiyaṃ vā sīsaṃ ṭhapetvā heṭṭh-upariya (so read!) -bhāvena parivattana-kīḷanaṃ"; i.e. trapeze-performing. Cf. D.B. I 10 and Vinaya Texts II 184). The list re-occurs at Vin II 10 (°āya: f.! kīḷanti); III 180; M I 266 and A V 203 (with important v.l. mokkhaṭika, which would imply mokkha and ending tiya, and not °cika at all. The commentary on this passage explains as: daṇḍakaṃ gahetvā heṭṭh-uppariya ( sic. as Sv I 86; correct to upariya?) -bhāvena parivattana-kīḷanaṃ). The word is found also at Vin I 275, where the boy of a Seṭṭhi in Bārāṇasī contracts injuries to his intestines by "mokkhacikāya kīḷanto," playing (with a) m. — According to its use with kīḷati and in instrumental mokkhacikena (Nidd II §219) may be either a sort of game or an instrument (toy), with which children play.