Shiva, in his childhood, was confronted with an incident where he heard a lady crying for help in the forest. Since he was a helpless child, he couldn't do anything about it and didn't go to her aid. This childhood action of his haunts him till date and he takes the blame for her death on his shoulders.
This so called Tibetan tribal chief; from Mount Kailash, near the great Mansarovar Lake, outside the Indian subcontinent, leaves with his tribe after accepting the invitation of the Meluhan King, Daksha. The night Shiva reaches Devagiri, the capital of Meluha, the land of the Suryavanshis, his entire tribe falls sick. Ayurvati, the Chief Doctor of the Meluhan empire gives them the powerful Somras, which heals all of them and in the process turns Shiva's throat blue in colour, indicating that he is their legendary Lord Neelkanth. The entire empire has been awaiting the arrival of their Lord, who they believe will save them from all their troubles.
Meluha is a very disciplined land, where citizens live for hundreds of years just by the consumption of the miracle medicine - the Somras. They are deep followers of Lord Ram's principles. One of His prime principles enforces equality among His people. Meluha has this weird custom of sending every new born child to Maika. Every child will be separated from the parents at birth. This is to ensure that once the child comes of age, he will be free to choose his way of life. And according to the way of life and work chosen by the children, they will be allotted to parents who have similar interests.
Meluha has been off late troubled by the Chandravanshis from the Swadeepan empire (which lies to the north eastern part of India). The Chandravanshis are believed to have joined forces with the Nagas, a cursed group with drastic physical deformities who everyone fears and hates.
In Meluha, Shiva falls in love with Sati, Daksha's daughter. Sati and Shiva are both great dancers. Sati is considered a Vikrama since she lost her child at birth. The myth is that she was cursed with a still born child as a penance to her past life sins. The Vikrama law states that a Vikrama can never touch anybody as they too will become unholy, let alone can a Vikrama marry someone. Shiva considers this utterly ridiculous and abolishes the law. In turn also asks Daksha for his daughter's hand in marriage. Daksha is more than happy to hear the request and marries his daughter off to the Lord Neelkanth.
Veerbhadra and Nandi are Shiva's closest friends from the tribe with whom he often shares Marijuana with. Parvatheshwar is the General in the Suryavanshi Army. Kanakhala is the Devagiri Chief Minister. Veerini is the Meluhan Queen, Sati's Mother and Daksha's wife. Krittika is Sati's friend who also ends up falling in love and marrying Veerbhadra. Brahaspati is the Chief Inventor of Meluha and a man of great knowledge. He stays at Mount Mandar in the labs, the only manufacturing unit of the Somras.
During his stay at Meluha, there occurs an explosion at Mount Mandar which blasts off the entire unit and kills many inventors and in the process Brahaspati, who had become one of Shiva's favourites in Meluha, goes missing. On reaching the site of the blasts, Shiva finds a Naga bracelet with an Auhm symbol on it, it has three serpents joined together to form the Auhm.
The Neelkanth is known for his short tempers. This was enough for him to start the war with the Chandravanshis and go in pursuit of the deadly Nagas. He goes with his troop to Swadeep, fights a war with the Chandrvanshis, kills many and wins, only to realize that they too, just like the Meluhans, believed in him, the legendary Neelkanth.
The battle is fought at the Swadeepan capital, Ayodhya. Dileepa is the Chandravanshi King and his children are Princess Anandmayi and Prince Bhagirath, who King Dileepa despises.
Traumatized by the turn of events, Shiva goes to Lord Ram's temple at Ayodhya where he meets the first Vasudev, the temple priest who talks to him about his life's karma's and duties. Sati waits outside for Shiva. On returning from the temple, he finds Sati fighting an attack of a Naga, the same Naga who killed his friend, Brahaspati. He realizes that with the serpent symbol he sees on this Naga. The book ends with Shiva charging at the Naga.
