Bagpipes are much older and more varied than their Scottish image suggests. Ancient writers describe Roman figures blowing reed pipes with a bag under the arm, and modern scholars think these were early versions of the same idea. Drones made the instrument a distinct class in medieval Europe, and bagpipes appear often in thirteenth century manuscripts and in Chaucer's Canterbury Tales from around 1380. The first clear reference to the Scottish Highland bagpipe comes from a French history of the 1547 Battle of Pinkie. In the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, Scottish regiments in the British Empire spread the Highland pipes worldwide. Many traditional forms declined but have been revived since the late twentieth century.

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.