According to the Oxford Dictionary, the meaning of the word Satire is: “The use of humour, irony, exaggeration or vice, particularly in the context of contemporary politics and other current affairs.
We know very well that Benjamin Franklin was the first to draw cartoons to constructively criticize social events. But in literature very few such poems or verses are available in most languages.
But in Sanskrit literature we find hundreds of satirical verses in the great works of the poets of the last centuries.
Take the case of the son-in-law. Here’s a pour!
More often than not it is crooked-true And occasionally adverse too; In the house of the Virgin is always standing And austere adoration always demands, Friends! What should this Pshaw! A tenth planet, the son-in-law (Sanskrit verse translated by Dr. Velluri Subba Rao).
In the previous verse, the house of the virgin has two meanings. One is the house of the Virgin whom the son-in-law marries. The second meaning is the house of the Virgin indicates the Virgo of the Zodiac. And rightly the son-in-law is called as the tenth planet. Everyone normally fearfully worships the nine planets, viz. Sun, Moon, Mars, Mercury, Jupiter, Venus, Saturn, Rahu and Kethu. Now we have to fearfully respect the tenth planet too, the son-in-law.
The poet derives his point in a satirical way here.
We have a complete work of the great poet Nilakantha Dikshita titled KaliVidambana which contains 100 satirical verses in Sanskrit.
Nilakantha Dikshita lived in the 17th century. He was the son of Narayana Dikshitha and grandson of Accan Dikshita II, brother of the well-known poet Appaya Dikshita. He moved to the temple city Madurai and the great king Thirumalai Nayaka was attracted to him. He was the Prime Minister of this great king. He was a prolific writer. It is known that he composed up to eighteen works.
In Kalividambana we can enjoy the satirical verses about various social characters inside and outside the family, as well as charlatans, doctors, poetasters, astrologers, etc.
Warning astrologers, Nilakantha says that they are very skilled in interpreting or forecasting things. If a man asks about the sex of the future son, the astrologer must answer that a boy will be born: for a lady, the answer must be in favor of a daughter. This is the key to the success of the astrologer.
If one asks about the length of life, the answer should be that it would live a long time. By such an answer, those who are naturally alive will be pleased. Even if the person in question dies, there is no harm because those who are dead will never ask the astrologer why the prediction went wrong.
As for the creditors, he says that even the God of death waits for the time of death to demand the lives of people; but there is no time limit for the creditor to demand the return of the debt owed to him.
Returning to the poets, with a slight hint at the indiscriminate descriptions of the poets, he says that in his descriptions even the blind become lotus-eyed, the greedy become Kalpa trees (wish-fulfilling trees) and even the cowardly become Vikramadidtyas (King Vikramaditya is considered the greatest heroic king in Indian history).
In fact, it is a great pleasure to read the hundred verses of Nilakantha. Once we come to those verses, we will know that satire is not new in Indian literature. It is as old as that of the Sanskrit language.