Did King Buwanekabahu IV use Eyewear? Unverified Lore and Brief History of SL Optometry

 

First and foremost, forgive the imagery being ai generated, it is for illustration purposes only and I don't have funds to commission a real artist 😅.

The Sri Lanka Optometric Association website states that "Sri Lanka has a tradition in eye care that extends back to the mist of history. It is well documented that during the reign of King Bhuvanekabahu the IV (AD 1346 – 1353) of the Gampola period the ancient tradition of optical lens making with natural stone was revitalized and given royal patronage. However, there is ample indications that this craft and the technical knowhow existed and flourished dwell before this period. To further develop the crafts, the practitioners and artisans were given royal protection and a vast area of land was designated so that they could live and practice their craft free of any taxes levied by the king and the produce of the land area allocated to them was for their personal use. A few of the craftsman still live and practice in the original hamlet given to the exponents of the craft by royal decree even today. The natural stone originally used for the manufacturing of these lenses was clear Beryl. However, due to the scarcity of this natural stone clear quartz is used today".

However I find this to be rather sus, even tho its stated in the wiki [website] (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bhuvanaikabahu_IV), the second reference that it's linked to is broken, and that article has been redacted it seems. And when looking it up in Google, this article (https://exploresrilanka.lk/crystal-glasses-that-kings-once-wore/) and all the videos on YouTube bring this up in the context of Mr Gunasoma's craftsmanship, allegedly a continuation of this line if work.. there is probably truth to this, but it's hard to say with the limited info. Either way, its wonderful lore.

In the 3rd illustration, of Prince Edward's visit to the see the Tooth Relic, a fellow redditor pointed out how one of the monks was wearing glasses, and if Sri Lanka had opticians back in 1876. This was rlly cool, so had to look into it. The Sri Lanka Optometric Association website also states that "The modern eye care industry of Sri Lanka can be traced back to the late 18th century when the British who conquered the island brought their apothecaries who also dabbled in the supply of a basic and rudimentary crude spectacle. The early 19th century saw a more scientific approach to spectacles with various British and Australian firms dominating the industry in Ceylon as it was then called. There was no regulation or standardization of the products or the service provided during this period".

Also, I added Image 4, cuz when it comes to non-scholarly sources, this Sunday Times feature has more info on Buwanekabahu IV than Wikipedia and the history textbook, lol.

It's cool that we had modern eyewear, since the 19th century, and possibly 18th century too. And that we had optometric traditions from before.. not surprising, since various parts of the world had analogous optometric traditions.

To this u/Calling_left_final replied "I can't remember which king, but there was an archer corp that could fight at night. I wonder if they had some type of night vision. Lol, I know sounds ridiculous but fun to think if they had that. However, I think there's this general idea/ myth that before the british we didn't have any tech that we have today (excluding computers and such) which is simply not true. For example, I was taught in history class that back then there were no barbers and the only way to cut hair was if it got tangled up in a branch, they'd just pull it when running from predators. At the same time, we're taught about marvels like Sigiriya and how people still haven't figured out how that was made, which makes you wonder if we were that backwards and lacking in technology, how can we build something like that or be a hydraulic civilization. Either way, very interesting read, we were much more complex than the tv shows would show us to be."

To which I replied, "I appreciate ur points, could'nt agree more. These night archers are new to me, always happy to find our new lore. Like these night archers, we outta collect these lores, cuz even tho they are not historical canon.. they are damn interesting, and they won't be recorded online.. and would be lost. I remember hearing a lore from a Sinhala teacher of a king who wanted to cross the Palk Straight to go to South India, had this device which he squeezed and parted the sea so that they could cross.. idk if its Sena II who invaded Madurai (Kinda wierd to fathom a Anuradhapura king invading Madurai, the Madurai), or that Parakramabahu from Dambadeniya who went to negotiate back the tooth relic from the Pandyan overlord. There was also this lore, that Dutugemunu's army had all these kevums, that were kept till rancid and mouldy, and when soldiers get injured, they would bandage these mouldy kevums, and it would help with healing.. prolly some penicillin-like effect. Anyways, humans are smart, and real communities by nature, experiment and make things better, with whatever resources and knowledges at disposal, whereever in the world.
This story about no barbers and haircuts is sorta sus. The Sangha has been clean shaven and bald fro 2500 years, and most depictions of Nissanka Malla are clean shaven or with this pencil moustache - lower lip hair patch combo. And there were prolly many hairstyles, and folks who wanted to shave prolly did. But ig, there could've been folks without the resources.. especially before historic period.
As for the media, they'll prolly take a while to catch-up, I suppose its when stuff accumulates till a turning point, would things be incorporated. To this day, even in dramas relating to Kotte and Kandy, the usage of flintlocks and other guns are disproportionately low. A lot of our history would include Portuguese and Dutch trying to come uphill, and we'd just be shooting them down, in Uva-Wellassa.. if I remember correctly, the Portuguese were cornered into this valley with no way out, their gunpowder wet with rain, and all we had to do was gun them down. (Funny side note - Constantine da Saa was not enthusiastic about this campaign from the begining, he was happily getting rich by trading in Galle, happy with the way things were, the Visceroy of Goa forced him to). The role of lascarins too, they were literally Sri Lankans armed and on par with Portuguese military standards, and how significant their changes in allegience were.The media doesn't show too well that Sri Lanka was on par with the happenings of the world, and not this isolated place, till British occupation. 
Wimaladharmasooriya, in a quote mention something along the lines of Celyon shall be another Flanders (Belgium = Dutch Flanders + French Waloonia) .. and I was like, damn.. how come it never occurred to me that Sri Lankan King's and beaurocracy were upto date of the happenings in the world, like we are with today.. they prolly know the map of Europe, maybe even the New World. King Senerath with the Danish is also another underrated thing.
Oh yeah, our hydraulic civilization, if I'm not mistaken Parakramabahu outsourced many key things to some groups from Kerala.. along with indigenous knowledge. Frankly, even the mercenaries, we outsourced a lot of damn things.. we still do that today with many things, there's prolly a model that works for the Sri Lankan context that we haven't exactly figured out yet, cuz we still work with the limitations our ancestors had. Here ends my comment, I hope we could talk more lore on this subreddit, and with other folks, we could have neat discussions."