Ta. maNTai and ziva begging with brahma's skull

[Periannan Chandrasekaran]

In classical Tamil texts there is a persistence occurrence of the word
maNTai
which is used in the sense of a begging bowl. Of course, it always
has meant "head"  or "skull" too which is the currently dominant sense.

It is interesting to note the connection between this and the purana
concerning
ziva begging with the skull from the erstwhile (middle?) head of
brahma.
Is that purana much later than cangkam era?
 ziva is said to have performed the decapitation of brahma, the first
of his 8 heroic acts all of which were
perfromed in Tamilkam,  at kantiyUr [A.Veluppillai: IITS-Cologne's
Kolam  Tamil electronic journal, Vol 2. ].

"
jnAla mImicai vaLLiyOr mAynten2a
ElAtu kaviznta en2 iraval maNTai
 malarppOr yAr en2a"  ( puRam:179:1-3  )
-->" ...wondering who would be able to make my begging bowl face
upwards
after I had turned it upside down not receiving any alms
having decided that all the generous people on earth had ceased to
exist..."

puRa:286:03
" palar mItu nITTiya maNTai ..."
-->" ...the begging bowl that had earlier been stretched out to
many...."

"....  akal maNTai tuLai urIi
irappOr.." (puRa:235:10-11)
--->"...of those  who have begged so much as to have holes in  their
bowls...

  "pANar pacu mIn2 corinta maNTai pOla " ( kuRu:169:04)
-->" ...like the earthern bowl used by fishermen to hold fresh fish..."

Regards,
Chandra
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