The sitar is a plucked stringed instrument of Hindustani classical music, developed in the 18th century and reaching its present form in the 19th. Modern scholarship credits Khusrau Khan, a Mughal-era figure, with inventing it, most likely adapting the setar, an Iranian lute whose name means 'three-stringed' in Persian. A sitar has a long hollow neck with movable frets, a gourd resonator, a few main strings played with a wire plectrum, and sympathetic strings that ring on their own beneath them, giving it a shimmering sound. Ravi Shankar brought it to world attention from the late 1950s.

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.