Hi Madhav,

Eyeglasses- I don’t think so. But on early optical lenses, see here

https://www.jstor.org/stable/4526448

best,
Matthew

Sent from [Proton Mail](https://proton.me/mail/home) for iOS

On Wed, Oct 11, 2023 at 05:36, Zoë Slatoff via INDOLOGY 
<[[email protected]](mailto:On Wed, Oct 11, 2023 at 05:36, Zoë 
Slatoff via INDOLOGY <<a href=)> wrote:

> Hi Madhav,
>
> I wrote my PhD dissertation (hopefully soon to be a book) on the 
> Aparokṣānubhūti and have come to think that it was probably written closer to 
> the late fifteenth to mid-sixteenth century, as part of the growing Advaitic 
> response to the increased output of haṭhayoga texts. While the Dīpikā 
> commentary is attributed to Vidyāraṇya, it also seems to be later and 
> unlikely to have actually been written by him.
>
> This would support the idea of upanetra as referring to some sort of 
> magnifying lens, which seems to have been introduced by the Portuguese in the 
> 15th century (see Birch, Jason. 2011. “The Meaning of haṭha in Early Haṭha 
> Yoga.” p. 540, fn. 98).
>
> Best wishes,
> Zoë
>
> Zoë Slatoff, Ph.D.
> Clinical Professor of Sanskrit
>
> Loyola Marymount University
>
>> On Oct 10, 2023, at 8:08 PM, Madhav Deshpande via INDOLOGY 
>> <[email protected]> wrote:
>>
>> In his Aparokṣānubhūti verse 81, Śaṅkarācārya says: sūkṣmatve sarvavastūnāṃ 
>> sthūlatvaṃ copanetrataḥ. Here, some modern interpreters have interpreted the 
>> word upanetra as referring to eye-glasses or some lens that enlarges the 
>> view. I am just wondering about the history of lenses and eye-glasses around 
>> the time of Śaṅkara. An allied question will be the date and authorship of 
>> Aparokṣānubhūti. Any information and references are appreciated.
>>
>> Madhav M. Deshpande
>> Professor Emeritus, Sanskrit and Linguistics
>> University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA
>> Senior Fellow, Oxford Center for Hindu Studies
>> Adjunct Professor, National Institute of Advanced Studies, Bangalore, India
>>
>> [Residence: Campbell, California, USA]
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