Sushruta is considered to be the father of cataract surgery, he practiced couching. Cataract surgery became popular only after antisepsis was discovered in 1870. After that the surgery remained extracapsular and sutureless till Williams introduced sutures in 1967. Intracapsular cataract extraction was described by various workers using different techniques. A major advancement in cataract surgery occurred when Harold Ridley implanted the first intraocular lens with extracapsular cataract extraction in1949. Since then several generations of intraocular lenses have been introduced. Kelman described phacoemulsification with 3mm incision size to reduce post operative astigmatism. Girard and Hoffman first described scleral tunnel incision and since then several other workers have described various techniques viz, phaco sandwich, Phacofracture, etc. of cataract surgery with smaller incision and self sealing wound (small incision cataract surgery or manual phaco).