Mokkhacika (m. or ˚ā f.) [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.] tumbling, turning somersaults, an acrobatic feat; in list of forbidden amusements at D i.6 (cp. DA i.86; samparivattaka -- kīḷanaŋ, i. e. playing with something that rolls along, continuously turning? The foll. sentence however seems to imply turning head over heels: "ākāse vā daṇḍaŋ gahetvā bhūmiyaŋ vā sīsaŋ ṭhapetvā heṭṭh -- upariya (so read!) -- bhāvena parivattana -- kīḷanaŋ"; i. e. trapeze -- performing. Cp. Dial. i.10 & Vin. 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 & ending tiya, and not ˚cika at all. The Cy. on this passage expls as: daṇḍakaŋ gahetvā heṭṭh -- uppariya (sic. as DA i.86; correct to upariya?) -- bhāvena parivattana -- kīḷanaŋ). 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 (Nd2 219) may be either a sort of game or an instrument (toy), with which children play.