Quick takeaway: In the Sushruta Samhita's Uttara-Tantra, the surgeon-sage Sushruta catalogued 76 eye diseases and mapped the eye into 5 mandalas, 6 sandhis and 6 patalas, sorting each by dosha. His classical eye-care routine — Triphala wash, ghee anointing and dosha-aware diet — translates directly to today's screen-age eye strain.
Quick Summary
Sushruta — the surgeon-sage who wrote the world's first treatise on eye surgery — described 76 distinct eye diseases, mapped the eye into 5 mandalas, 6 sandhis and 6 patalas, and traced almost every eye problem to seven everyday habits. Most of those habits are now your daily routine: late nights, fixed gaze on small screens, repressed tears, dust, smoke, and grief-fatigue. This guide translates the Uttara-Tantra's eye chapter into a clean modern routine — Triphala wash, ghee anointing, dosha-aware diet — and points you to Netra Aushadhi, our cow's-milk-extract eye solution that follows the same classical lineage.
📖 9 min read · Based on Sushruta Samhita, Uttara-Tantra, Chapter I (Aupadravikam Adhyayam)
What's inside
- Why Sushruta wrote a whole tantra on the eyes
- The 5 mandalas, 6 sandhis & 6 patalas of your eye
- The 76 eye diseases Sushruta mapped — by dosha
- 14 causes Sushruta listed — and why every one applies in 2026
- Early-warning signs (purva-rupa) most people ignore
- A 4-step daily Ayurvedic eye care routine
- Foods that genuinely strengthen vision
- When self-care isn't enough — incurable signs in the classics
- Frequently asked questions
1. Why Sushruta wrote a whole tantra on the eyes
Long before the slit-lamp or the optometrist's chart, an Indian surgeon named Sushruta sat down to write the Uttara-Tantra — the supplementary text of his Samhita. Out of the 66 chapters he reserved for the most pressing diseases, the first 19 are entirely about the eye. That's not an accident. Sushruta classified the eye as the most precious of the five sense organs and treated it with surgical seriousness: he is the same physician credited with the world's earliest cataract-couching technique.
His opening sentence, translated by Kunja Lal Bhishagratna, is unusually direct: "I shall now begin with the description of the numbers, the pathology and the curability or incurability of those specific ailments of the body which are peculiar to the region of the head." He then proceeds, with almost obsessive precision, to count out exactly 76 different kinds of eye diseases, sort them by which dosha drives them, and list which ones surgery can cure and which ones medicine cannot.
For us, in the age of 9-hour screen days and dry-eye complaints, this 2,500-year-old map is unexpectedly useful. Sushruta wasn't seeing different eyes from yours — he was seeing yours under different stressors. His framework still works. We just have to translate it.
2. The 5 mandalas, 6 sandhis & 6 patalas of your eye
Modern anatomy speaks of cornea, iris, retina, sclera. Sushruta speaks of mandalas (concentric circles), sandhis (junctions between them) and patalas (layered coats). The translation is not perfect, but the structure is identical to what an ophthalmologist sees in a fundus exam today.
The 5 mandalas (outermost to innermost)
- Pakshma-mandala — the eyelash circle
- Vartma-mandala — the eyelid
- Sveta-mandala — the white (sclera + cornea)
- Krishna-mandala — the dark part (iris/choroid). Sushruta says this is one-third of the whole eye.
- Drishti-mandala — the pupil. Only one-seventh of the krishna-mandala. The smallest part — but where vision actually lives.
The six sandhis are the joining lines between these circles — places where, even in modern medicine, a surprisingly large number of eye problems start (lid-margins, the limbus, the canthi). The six patalas are the layered coats: two in the eyelid, four in the eye proper. Sushruta states bluntly that the dreaded condition called Timira (loss of vision) develops in these four inner coats — and uses this layered model to predict which kinds of vision loss are reversible and which are not.
The five elements are mapped onto these structures: the earth element forms the muscle, fire rides on the blood, air animates the iris, water dominates the white sclera and lens, and ether opens up the lachrymal channels. This is not poetry — it is the framework Sushruta uses to choose which oil, which decoction and which herb to apply for which complaint.
3. The 76 eye diseases Sushruta mapped — by dosha
Sushruta's count is not a round number — it is a forensic tally. He breaks it down by which humour (dosha) drives the disease:
76 eye diseases — by cause
- 10 Vataja (driven by Vata) — including dry-eye, twitching, and most age-related vision loss
- 10 Pittaja (driven by Pitta) — including burning eyes, redness, and inflammatory ophthalmia
- 13 Kaphaja (driven by Kapha) — including watery, sticky discharge, conjunctival oedema and many lid disorders
- 16 Raktaja (driven by vitiated blood) — including bloodshot eyes, sub-conjunctival haemorrhage and styes
- 25 Tridoshaja (driven by all three doshas together) — the most stubborn group, including most cataracts
- 2 traumatic — caused by injury or sudden glare
By location, he places 9 in the sandhis, 21 in the eyelids, 11 in the white, 4 in the iris, 17 in the whole eyeball and 12 in the pupil. The eyelids alone — 21 named diseases — is a number a modern dermatologist would respect. Many of these (utsangini, the modern stye; kumbhika, multiple inflamed pustules; pakshma-kopa, lash misdirection) are still seen in any optometry clinic today, just under different names.
4. 14 causes Sushruta listed — and why every one applies in 2026
The Aupadravikam chapter lists exactly fourteen things that derange the local doshas of the eye. We translated each one into modern-day equivalents — the overlap is uncomfortable.
Sushruta's 14 causes — ancient text → modern habit
- Diving into water immediately after sun exposure → washing your face with cold water after a hot afternoon
- Constant gazing at distant objects → long highway driving, mountain trekking without sunglasses
- Day sleep → afternoon naps that dull pitta digestion
- Late hours of the night → working past midnight under blue light
- Fixed and steady gaze → 8 hours of unbroken laptop work
- Excessive weeping or grief → unprocessed emotional load
- Worry and fatigue → chronic stress, no recovery
- A blow or hurt → cricket ball, kid's elbow, falls
- Sexual excesses → ojas (vitality) depletion
- Sukta, aranala (fermented rice-water), acid gruel, masha and kulattha pulses → reheated leftovers, very sour pickles, excessive black-gram and horse-gram
- Voluntary repression of natural urges → holding in tears, urine, sneezes during meetings
- Exposure to smoke or dust → traffic, pollution, Diwali smog
- Trickling sweat into the eyes → gym sessions without a band
- Constant contraction to focus on tiny objects → scrolling text on a 5-inch screen
Sushruta did not have a phone in his hand — but his fifth and fourteenth causes describe phone use almost word-for-word. He also catches something most modern advice misses: repressed tears. The classics treat tear-suppression as a true physical insult to the eye, on par with smoke. If you have been holding back grief, that is not metaphor — it is, in this framework, a cause of disease.
5. Early-warning signs (purva-rupa) most people ignore
The chapter on purva-rupa — premonitory symptoms — reads like the side-bar of a phone-strain article in 2026. Sushruta says the eye, before it becomes diseased, will quietly show:
- Cloudiness of vision
- Slight inflammation
- Lachrymation (watery eyes for no reason)
- Mucous accumulation in the corners
- Heaviness of the eyelids
- Burning sensation
- Sucking, aching pain
- Redness
- Difficulty in opening and closing the lids freely
- Trouble distinguishing colours
6. A 4-step daily Ayurvedic eye care routine
The Uttara-Tantra prescribes seka (eye baths), tarpana (medicated ghee anointment), anjana (collyrium) and nasya (nasal medication that drains via the eyes) as the four classical eye therapies. Most of them belong in a Panchakarma clinic. But the gentle daily versions can — and should — be in your bathroom shelf.
Step 1 — Splash with cool water (Seka, the simplest version)
First thing in the morning, fill your mouth with cool water and splash open eyes 10–15 times with cool plain water using both palms. This is the most basic Ayurvedic eye-bath. The full mouth keeps the facial muscles taut, which protects the cornea during the splash. Sushruta's chapter on asechana recommends this temperature-contrast practice to counter the day's accumulating Pitta in the head.
Step 2 — Triphala eye wash, twice a week
Soak 1 teaspoon of triphala powder overnight in a small clay or copper bowl with 120 ml of clean water. In the morning, strain the cooled water through a clean cotton muslin cloth — twice. Use this strained water for an open-eye dip (or a sterile eye-cup) for 30 seconds. Triphala is named in Chapter XXII of the Uttara-Tantra as the basis of Triphala-Ghrita, one of Sushruta's principal eye preparations. It is mildly astringent, anti-inflammatory and clears the kapha-led mucous accumulation that haunts modern allergy-prone eyes.
Step 3 — Palming & long-distance gaze (the modern Drishti-vyayama)
Sushruta blames "constant contraction of the eyes to adjust the sight to extremely small objects" for visual disorders. The simplest counter is 20-20-20: every 20 minutes, look 20 feet away for 20 seconds. Pair it with palming — rub palms warm, cup them over closed eyes for 60 seconds. This is the laypersons' equivalent of tarpana: warmth, darkness, and rest delivered to the cornea in a single one-minute ritual.
Step 4 — Drop, the classical way
Once the cleansing and gaze-rest are in place, the eye benefits from a gentle, classically-prepared aushadhi (medicine). Our Netra Aushadhi is a clean, three-ingredient classical solution — cow's milk extract, rose water and honey. Cow's milk extract is named in the classical eye chapters as nourishing (poshaka), rose water is a cooling pitta-pacifier, and honey is the most ancient of madhura-anjana bases. There is nothing in the bottle except those three.
Netra Aushadhi — Eye Solution
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View Netra Aushadhi →7. Foods that genuinely strengthen vision
The diet section of the Uttara-Tantra spans Chapters XLIV–XLVI and the regimen sections of Chapter LXIV (Rules of Health). Across them, the eye-supporting foods Sushruta returns to are remarkably similar to the modern lutein-and-vitamin-A list:
Sushruta-approved eye foods (and what they map to)
- Cow's ghee — the single most repeated eye-nourisher; the base of Triphala-Ghrita, Maha-kalyana-Ghrita, Adbhut Ghrit
- Triphala — amla, haritaki, bibhitaki together; modern studies link this to ocular surface health
- Amla (Indian gooseberry) — Vitamin C, repeatedly named for chakshushya (eye-strengthening)
- Carrots, leafy greens (palak, methi) — beta-carotene; appear in classical pathya (recommended diet) lists
- Soaked almonds — Sneha (oleation) without aggravating Pitta
- Black sesame seeds — strengthen vata-driven eye dryness
- Jaggery (gud) in small amounts — nourishes rakta dhatu, the basis of the alochaka pitta that powers vision
And the foods to cut down when the eyes are flaring? The chapter explicitly names sukta (over-fermented liquids), aranala (fermented rice water — read: very sour fermented food), masha (excess black gram in winter) and kulattha (horse-gram, heavy and heating). Excess salt and excess sour are the modern equivalents — chips, pickles, processed sauces.
8. When self-care isn't enough — incurable signs in the classics
Sushruta is unusually honest about which eye conditions cannot be cured. He writes that of the Vataja eye diseases, Hatadhimantha, Nimisha, Gambhirika (deep affection of vision) and Vata-hata-vartma are incurable. Of the Pittaja: Hrasva-jadya and Jala-srava. Of the Kaphaja: Srava-roga. Of the Tridoshaja: Puyasrava, Nakulandhya, Akshipakatyaya and Alaji. And both forms of traumatic eye disease (sa-nimitta and a-nimitta) are listed as incurable in the Samhita's framework.
In modern terms, the symptoms that map to those names — sudden vision loss, unrelenting pain, copious purulent discharge, halos with crushing headache, sudden flashes — are exactly the symptoms an ophthalmologist's emergency line is for.
9. Frequently asked questions
Is Ayurvedic eye care safe for contact lens users? +
Most of the routine in section 6 is not safe with lenses in. Always remove your contact lenses before any seka, triphala wash, palming session or use of a classical eye solution. Wait at least 30 minutes after the routine before re-inserting lenses. If you wear lenses for more than 6 hours daily, give your eyes one lens-free day per week.
How is Netra Aushadhi different from a regular eye drop? +
Pharmacy eye drops are typically lubricant solutions (carboxymethyl-cellulose) or anti-allergic / anti-infective formulations. Netra Aushadhi is an Ayurvedic aushadhi built on three classical ingredients — cow's milk extract, rose water and honey — that the eye chapters of Sushruta and the Bhavaprakasha point to for nourishment, cooling and antibacterial action. It is meant for daily refreshment of healthy eyes, not as a treatment for an active eye infection or a vision disorder.
Can children use this routine? +
The cool-water splash and 20-20-20 gaze rest are safe and beneficial for school-age children. Triphala wash is best avoided under age 12 because of the difficulty of keeping the powder fully strained. Palming is wonderful for children — it is essentially the eye-rest break their teachers should be enforcing every 30 minutes. Any classical eye solution for a child should only be used on a paediatric Ayurvedic doctor's recommendation.
Does Triphala really help with eye health, or is that folklore? +
It is mainstream classical Ayurveda, not folklore. The chapters on eye treatment in Sushruta Samhita, Ashtanga Hridaya and Charaka Samhita all converge on Triphala — and on Triphala-Ghrita as the most-named eye preparation. Modern PubMed-indexed studies have looked at Triphala for ocular surface health and dry eye, with cautious but positive findings. We treat it as a mild, gentle, daily-cleansing herb — not a treatment for any specific eye disease.
Why does Sushruta blame "repressed tears" for eye disease? +
Ayurveda treats thirteen natural urges (urination, defecation, hunger, thirst, sneeze, yawn, tears, vomit, breath, sleep, etc.) as essential physiological cycles. Voluntarily blocking any of them deranges the local Vata. Tears, in particular, are the eye's daily detox: they wash away dust, allergens and pitta-laden secretions. The classical view is that holding back tears for hours — say, in a tense workday or a long grief — disrupts that cleansing cycle. The modern fix is simple: actually let yourself cry when you need to, and physically blink hard 10 times every 30 minutes if your tear film feels dry.
Can I do all four steps every day, or is that too much? +
Daily: cool-water seka (step 1), 20-20-20 with palming (step 3), and Netra Aushadhi (step 4). Twice a week: the Triphala wash (step 2). The Triphala wash is the strongest of the four — overdoing it can dry the eyes; less is more. If your eyes feel calmer and clearer within a fortnight, you have the right rhythm.
Source: An English Translation of the Sushruta Samhita Vol. III (Uttara-Tantra), edited by Kaviraj Kunja Lal Bhishagratna, 1916, Chapters I–II (Aupadravikam Adhyayam & Sandhi-gata-Roga-Vijnaniya). Cross-referenced with Ashtanga Hridaya Uttara-Sthana and Bhavaprakasha. This article is for educational purposes and does not substitute for ophthalmological care.
