Dighanikaya 26.82

26.82

Osakkitanti īsakampi avasakkitaṃ. Ṭhānā cutanti sabbaso ṭhānā apagataṃ. Taṃ kira cakkaratanaṃ antepuradvāre akkhāhataṃ viya vehāsaṃ aṭṭhāsi. Athassa ubhosu passesu dve khadiratthambhe nikhaṇitvā cakkaratanamatthake nemiabhimukhaṃ ekaṃ suttakaṃ bandhiṃsu. Adhobhāgepi nemiabhimukhaṃ ekaṃ bandhiṃsu. Tesu uparimasuttato appamattakampi ogataṃ cakkaratanaṃ osakkitaṃ nāma hoti, heṭṭhā suttassa ṭhānaṃ uparimakoṭiyā atikkantagataṃ ṭhānā cutaṃ nāma hoti, tadetaṃ atibalavadose sati evaṃ hoti. Suttamattampi ekaṅguladvaṅgulamattaṃ vā bhaṭṭhaṃ ṭhānā cutameva hoti. Taṃ sandhāyetaṃ vuttaṃ ‘‘osakkitaṃ ṭhānā cuta’’nti.

‘Slipped down’ (osakkitaṃ) means slipped down even slightly. ‘Fallen from its place’ (ṭhānā cutaṃ) means completely departed from its position. That wheel-treasure, it is said, stood suspended in the air at the entrance of the inner palace as if struck by an axle. Then, having driven in two acacia posts on both sides of it, they tied a thread across the top of the wheel-treasure facing the rim. Below as well, they tied one facing the rim. Between them, when the wheel-treasure sank even a tiny bit from the upper thread, it was called ‘slipped down’; when its upper edge had passed and gone below the position of the lower thread, it was called ‘fallen from its place’—and that would happen when there was an exceedingly grave fault. Even a drop the size of a thread, or one or two fingers’ breadth, is indeed ‘fallen from its place’. It was in reference to that that it was said: ‘slipped down, fallen from its place’.