The zodiac man, or Homo signorum, is an image of a human body with each astrological sign linked to a body part. Pisces was tied to the feet, Aries to the head, and Cancer to the chest. Physicians used these charts to time treatments, so bloodletting was avoided when the Moon was in the sign that governed the affected part. A fifteenth-century English almanac in Latin shows a figure with the signs pulling on his limbs. Similar images appear in Persian manuscripts and in colonial-era facsimiles of Mesoamerican artefacts. The idea rested on a belief that the body was a microcosm whose health followed the movements of the heavens.

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.