Painted Spectacles: Evidence of the Mughal Paintings for the Correction of Vision: IDSK Occasional Paper 38 (original) (raw)

This interdisciplinary study of Ophthalmology in India during the premodern times highlights the evidence of spectacles depicted in a few Mughal paintings. The study also demonstrates that there was a very rich history of optics and refraction in the medieval Islamic world. The theories of optics and refraction did not possibly make similar strides in the subcontinent. We have highlighted particularly the immense contribution of Ibn al Hytham, an eleven century polymath, to the theories of optics and refraction without which the lens for the spectacles cannot be manufactured. Historically speaking, the earliest spectacles were manufactured in Italy (13 th century) from where these rapidly spread to other parts of Europe. The advent of European merchants in India from the 16 th century onwards resulted in the familiarity with spectacles, at least in the court and elite circles. The paper also discusses the possible benefit of the use of spectacles for correcting aphakia, a refractive condition arising out of cataract surgery done in the subcontinent in the traditional couching/intracapsular/extracapsular method, modelled mostly on the celebrated medical treatise, The Sustrutasamhita.