The phrase pride and prejudice appeared in English religious writing more than 400 years ago, long before Jane Austen's 1813 novel. Church of England ministers used it to accuse opponents of arrogance and narrow-mindedness, and Nonconformists, Quakers and others adopted it too. In the 18th century it spread into political writing, including Thomas Paine's Common Sense, and into novels by several women writers before Austen. By the 1840s, British Quaker Thomas Clarkson was using it in antislavery appeals, and Frederick Douglass later used it as a favourite phrase.

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.