mokkhacika

or ˚ā feminine tumbling, turning somersaults, an acrobatic feat; in list of forbidden amusements at DN.i.6 (cp. DN-a.i.86; samparivattaka-kīḷanaṃ, i.e. playing with something that rolls along, continuously turning The foll. 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. Cp Dial. i.10 & Vin. Texts ii.184). The list re-occurs at Vin.ii.10 (˚āya: f.! kīḷanti); Vin.iii.180; MN.i.266≈and AN.v.203 (with important variant reading mokkhaṭika, which would imply mokkha & ending; tiya, and not -cika at all The Cy. on this passage explains as: daṇḍakaṃ gahetvā heṭṭh-uppariya (sic. as DN-a.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 & in instr.; mokkhacikena (Cnd.219 may be either a sort of game or an instrument (toy) with which children play.

see on attempt at etym. Morris in J.P.T.S. 1885, 49 who takes mokkha as fr. muc “tumbling” & cika = “turning” fr. cak = cik. The word remains obscure, it must be a dialectical expression distorted by popular analogy & taken perhaps; from a designation of a place where these feats or toys had their origin. More probable than Morris’ etym is an analysis of the word (if it is Aryan) as mokkha mokkha2, in meaning “head, top,” so that it may mean “head over,” top-first“ & we have to separate *mokkhac-ika the ˚ika representing ˚iya “in the manner of like” & -ac being the adv. of direction as contained in Sk. prāñc = pra-añc.