In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, doctors diagnosed neurasthenia, a supposed exhaustion of the nerves, in busy professionals and high-status brain-workers. George Miller Beard, who popularised the term, described the nervous system as a battery that could be recharged, and electrotherapy devices were sold on that basis. Silas Weir Mitchell's rest cure isolated patients, mostly women, in quiet rooms with little work or company. The diagnosis faded in America and Europe in the 1920s as psychology rose, but it spread to China through advertising.

Hampi is a UNESCO World Heritage Site in Karnataka, India, with more than 1,600 surviving remains spread over 4,100 hectares. It was the capital of the Vijayanagara Empire from 1336 to 1565. Travellers from Persia and Portugal described it as a prosperous, wealthy and grand city with temples, markets and farms along the Tungabhadra River. By 1500 it was estimated to be the world's second-largest city after Beijing, and probably India's richest at the time. In 1565 a coalition of Muslim sultanates defeated the Vijayanagara Empire, its capital was conquered and destroyed, and the city was left in ruins. Hampi remains a religious centre, with the active Virupaksha Temple at its heart.