Schadenfreude is the pleasure people feel when they learn about someone else's trouble, failure or humiliation. It is a German word, and the closest English equivalent is gloat, though gloat carries a more openly smug tone. Researchers have detected the emotion in children as young as two. It may play a role in social life by helping to establish inequity aversion, the sense that unfair advantages should be balanced out. The feeling is widespread, which is why the word has been borrowed into English.

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.