them. There he meets the chief of Vayuputras, Mithra, who turns out to be his maternal uncle. Mithra convinces the Vayuputras that Shiva is the real Neelkanth and gives him the Pashupathiastra which acts on a specific target, rather than annihilating everything like the Brahmastra. Meanwhile, Parvateshwar uses decoy ships to give an impression to Kali that he was going to attack Panchavati. Alarmed, Kali takes the bait and leaves with the finest Naga soldiers in their pursuit. However, she realizes her folly and returns. Daksha plans to assassinate Shiva and sends Vidyunmali to get Egyptian assassins. He frames a peace treaty for Shiva but in his absence, Sati attends the peace conference and learns the truth. She fights the assassins valiantly, but is killed. The war ends with Sati's death, but an enraged Shiva decides to use the Pashupatiastra to finish Devagiri forever. Parvateshwar, Anandmayi, Veerini decide to stay back in the city and die with it, but Kartik persuades Bhrigu to remain alive and share his vast knowledge with future generations. Shiva unleashes the astra and ends Devagiri's history, along with the Somras manufacturing units hidden beneath the city. In the epilogue, Shiva retires to Mount Kailash where he lives the rest of his days peacefully, though missing Sati every day. Ganesh, Kali and Kartik become renowned as Gods for their prowess, all over India. They take revenge for Sati's death by wiping out the whole clan of the Egyptian assassins. Bhrigu continues teaching and collates his knowledge in a book called Bhrigu Samhita. Sati's death is not forgotten and she is later renowned as Goddess Shakti. It is revealed that in order to ensure that the Somras is not mass-manufactured again, the course of the Yamuna is turned towards the east, thus drying up the Saraswati River. Characters and locations Tripathi believes that "Myths are nothing but jumbled memories of a true past. A past buried under mounds of earth and ignorance." The book has known characters from Hindu texts as well as those born from Tripathi's imagination, however the characters from the Hinduism do not inherit all of their classical traits. Characters Shiva – The main character in the story. He is a Tibetan immigrant to Meluha and the chief of the Guna tribe. On arriving in Meluha and consuming the Somras (a potion), his throat turns blue making him the Neelkanth of the Meluhan legend,