Bloodletting was used for conditions ranging from asthma and gout to insanity and heartbreak. Historians believe it was practised in ancient Egypt, and in Greece physicians such as Hippocrates saw blood as one of four humours to be kept in balance. It spread through medieval Europe and then to places including India, China and Tibet. Barbers and barber-surgeons often performed bleeding, while monks were forbidden to do it. Tools ranged from fleams and scarificators to leeches, and where to cut depended on the disease.

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.