Sangam literature also provides us with a glimpse into the dietary habits of the early Tamils.
Sea food was evidently much relished, for the Pattinap-Palai mentions fish being sliced at the port of Pukar in the mouth of the Kaveri, and fishermen partaking of dishes of fried sweet prawns and boiled field tortoise.
Among the beverages, the toddy drawn from the coconut palm seems to have been commonly consumed by the poorer classes such as soldiers, labourers and wandering minstrels.
Fishermen are mentioned as drinking the juice extracted from the palmyra. The wealthier classes, according to the Manimegalai, consumed scented liquers manufactured from rice and the flowers of the Tataki (Bauhinia Tomentosa) while the favourite drink of royalty seems to have been costly imported wines brought by Yavana ships.
The staple food of the Tamils then as now seems to have been rice, supplemented with various vegetables and meats. Milk, butter and honey also seem to have been in common use.
In an account of a wandering minstrel contained in the Perum-panarru, we learn that the diet of the hunters consisted of course rice of a red colour and the flesh of the guana while that of the shepherds consisted of a meal of maize, beans and millet boiled in milk.
The labourers in the agricultural tracts seem to have enjoyed a meal of white rice and the roasted flesh of the fowl, while on the sea coast, the fishermen seem to have subsisted on rice and fried fish.
The Brahmins who were vegetarians had fine rice with mango pickle and the tender fruits of the pomegranate cooked with butter and the fragrant leaves of the Karuvembu.