Sangam literature is the earliest known literature of South India, written in Tamil and preserved in anthologies. The historical Sangam period is usually dated from about 300 BCE to 300 CE, though scholars give a narrower range of roughly 100 BCE to 250 CE. The corpus contains 2,381 poems by 473 named and anonymous poets, and they vary from 3 to 782 lines. Its poetry falls into two main groups: akam, about love in its many moods, and puram, about war, kingship and public life. Its poems are set in five landscapes, from mountains to deserts, and the imagery often gives a sense of place. The later legends of three literary academies, which claim vast spans of years, are considered mythical by historians.

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.