Netra (Locana) Darpanam of Tadipalli Panakalaraya

by Uttam Vaidya Pammi Satyanarayana (Tr.) and Dr.M. Ramasundara Rao (Ed.)

This Netra darpanamu is the only book written exclusively on Eye diseases in Telugu poetry. This unique work in Telugu was first published in 1908 in Eluru and republished in 1915 & 1926. After a lapse of 58 years I got it serialized in Indian Medicine House Journal in 1984 to draw the attention of the Vaidyas of Andhra Pradesh. It is the general opinion as I could gather of the Ayurvedic fraternity that it is very difficult to treat eye diseases through Ayurveda. I would like to draw again the attention of the such Vaidyas to Sudarsanam Netra cikitsalaya of Kutt Krishnan Nair of Tiruvajja and Sreedhariyam eye hospital in Kerala State. These hospitals provide successful treatment for many eye ailments which modern medicine could not treat. If one or two practitioners make a beginning all the others follow it. We need few such devoted vaidyas. Central Council for Research in Ayurveda recently published in 1999 two small books-Netra roga Nidanam and Netra prakasika. These were said to be the translations of manuscripts in Tamil available in Tanjavore Library. It is necessary that these are compared with the present Netra darpanamu to assess its uniqueness.