Hindu temple architecture follows a shared basic plan across India, even though its styles vary by region. At the centre is the garbhagriha, a womb-chamber, a small bare cell that houses the main image of a deity. Above it rises a tower called a shikhara in the north or a vimana in the south, and a porch-like hall called a mandapa is used for gatherings. Worshippers walk clockwise around the sanctum in a passage for circumambulation, and the temple is considered a pilgrimage site. Stone temples appear in the Gupta period in the 5th century, and by the 7th century the main features were established. Southern temples are known for gopurams, tall gateways topped with a finial called a kalasha.

In 1909 D. W. Griffith made a 14-minute film about a speculator who corners the wheat market and doubles the price of bread. A farmer sows his field while a 'Wheat King' gambles in the Chicago wheat pit; bakers raise the loaf from five cents to ten and the poor line up for bread. Griffith cut back and forth between the farm, the feast and the breadline, a technique called parallel editing, so audiences saw both ends of the economy at once. The film drew on Frank Norris's stories and on a real scheme: months earlier Chicago financier James Patten had cornered wheat, sent bread prices up and made about $5 million, roughly $185 million today.