The toothbrush grew out of chew sticks, twigs with frayed ends used to scrub teeth, which appeared in Sumer around 3500 BC and in Egypt by about 3000 BC. Monks in China and India used similar tools for daily cleaning. The first bristle toothbrush resembling the modern one appeared in China during the Tang dynasty (619–907), with hog bristles set into a bamboo or bone handle. Europeans found those bristles too firm and later preferred horsehair. In Britain, William Addis is believed to have made the first mass-produced toothbrush around 1780, after devising one in prison with a bone handle and tufts of bristle. Nylon replaced animal bristle when DuPont introduced it in 1938, and the first electric toothbrush, the Broxodent, appeared in Switzerland in 1954.

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.