A History of South India from Prehistoric Times to the Fall of Vijayanagar c12.56

c12.56

No occasion was lost for holding a feast and the poets are most eloquent in their praise of the sumptuous fare to which they were so often asked. One poet declares to his patron: ‘I came to see you that we might eat succulent chops of meat, cooled after boiling and soft like the carded cotton of the spinning-woman, and drink large pots of toddy together.’ Another speaks of wine poured into golden goblets by smiling women decked with jewels in the court of Karikāla. The flesh of animals cooked whole, such as pork from a pig which had been kept away from its female mate for many days and fattened for the occasion, *appam* (pudding) soaked in milk, the flesh of tortoises and particular kinds of fish are mentioned as delicacies served at such feasts. Among drinks particular mention is made of foreign liquor in green bottles, of *munnir* (‘triple water’)—a mixture of milk from unripe coconut, palm fruit juice and the juice of sugar-cane, and of toddy well matured by being buried underground for a long time in bamboo barrels.