Another friend of Tripathi, Rashmi Pusalkar, designed the book cover according to his specifications, which were to keep a balance between reality and fantasy. Hence Pusalkar chose to just portray the back profile of Shiva, standing in front of a huge lake. Since Pusalkar had never designed any book covers before, she felt that the task was more daunting for her, and explained Shiva is a human of flesh and blood, he is not a God. The challenge was to show him as vulnerable. I portrayed him from the back, because Indian Gods are never seen from the back. He has battle scars and a sculpted physique. Tripathi wanted the cover to have a symbolic meaning. The scenery behind Shiva's image is taken from Mount Kailash and Lake Manasarovar. He also created a clay model of the broken Pashupati seal, which was later photographed and used in the book inlay. The increasing brightness of the book covers, from the dull colors of The Immortals of Meluha to the bright hue of The Oath of the Vayuputras, signified the triumph of good over evil, according to Tripathi.