Warli painting is a tribal art from the north Sahyadri hills of Maharashtra, traditionally made by the Warli people on the mud walls of their homes. Artists use only a white pigment made from rice flour and water, applied with a bamboo stick chewed at one end to form a brush. The imagery is built from three shapes: a circle for the sun and moon, a triangle for mountains and conical trees, and a square for a sacred enclosure called the chauk. Scenes show farming, hunting, festivals and the tarpa dance, in which dancers circle a trumpet player. Walls were painted only for weddings, festivals and harvests, and the tradition moved onto paper and canvas from the 1970s.

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.