Bandicoots are small nocturnal marsupials native to Australia and New Guinea, named by settlers after an Indian rat called pandi-kokku, or pig-rat. A study of more than 3,000 New South Wales newspaper reports from 1804 to 1954 traces how people's view of them changed. Early colonists hunted them for sport, food and fur, and their meat was even praised in print. From the 1830s, farmers complained that bandicoots dug up maize and potatoes, and bandicooting became slang for stealing garden produce. Lethal control followed, and from the 1880s until 1930 people could collect cash for presenting bandicoot scalps.

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.