It follows through Ram's childhood and tutelage, along with the politics surrounding his ascension to the throne, and ultimately his 14-year exile, accompanied by wife Sita and brother Lakshman.

The next day, Raavan besieges Mithila with 10,000 of his soldiers, and Ram is forced to use the biological weapon Asurastra by Vishwamitra, even though its usage is forbidden and not authorized by the Vayuputras, Lord Rudra's tribe.

Sita makes a secret deal with the vulture-like Naga Jatayu and his men, to protect Ram and supply the trio with the anti-ageing drink, Somras.

Thirteen years pass and one day, Ram's camp is approached by Raavan's siblings, Vibhishan and Shurpanakha, who seek refuge from their tyrannical brother.

Anuj Bahri, who was the first publisher for The Immortals of Meluha, said that the deal could go up to US$4 million once they acquired the film, foreign and translation rights for the books.

In January 2015, Tripathi revealed at the Jaipur Literature Festival that his next series would be based on Rama, the legendary Indian king regarded as an incarnation of Vishnu.

He explained that at the 2013 version of the festival, a reader had asked him why people use the moniker "Lord" while naming Rama, which led to Tripathi thinking about developing a series.

[10] He also confirmed a part of the plot, where Ravana wins a war in the story and enforces a trade deal which results in the Sapta Sindhu area to give economic privileges to Lanka.

[15] Like the characterization of women in the Shiva trilogy, Tripathi had strong female perspective in Scion of Ikshvaku, including portraying Manthara as a businesswoman.

[16] Westland had run a social media contest prior to the revealing of the name, with hashtags like #WhatNextAmish" and #MysteryBoxes, containing clues to the subject of the book.

[9] The cover art was released on 27 March 2015 at a press conference in Mumbai, unveiled by Bollywood actor Akshay Kumar and Padmanabhan.

Creative agency Think Why Not developed the book cover, which depicted Rama, shooting with a bow and an arrow towards Ravana, the latter on his legendary Pushpak Vimana.

The author added the symbols as an addendum, basing them on the still undeciphered Indus Valley letters and made them represent how Rama would have been written in the script.

Release date for the book was revealed as 22 June 2015, with pre-orders starting after the cover was unveiled, including the Hindi version titled Ikshvaku ke Vanshaj.

[17][18] In April 2015, retail website Amazon.com started promoting the book using their existing relationship with the 2015 Indian Premier League (IPL), in-between the cricket matches.

[19] Westland also set up a Twitter chat where director Karan Johar interviewed Tripathi, and ultimately released the official trailer for the book to YouTube.

[20] The trailer starts off with a coin spinning on a map, spelling out the word "Ayodhya", followed by interspersed scenes of a man chasing someone in a forest, a lady fighting off a group of soldiers, a meteor as well as arrows falling from the sky, and a helicopter like structure flying in the air.

[22][23] Samir Kumar, Director of Category Management at Amazon.in believed that launching the book through their platform helped the company reach out a larger set of customers, based on the success of Tripathi's previous release.

"[25] Controversy erupted when Westland filed a case against online retailer Flipkart, alleging that the company had violated IT Act by selling the book on their website, since they had signed an exclusive deal with Amazon.

Rasul Ballay from The Economic Times commented that "by when the importance of the controversy would have diluted as most number of copies of an eagerly awaited book like this are generally sold within a month of its launch.

"[30] The review in the New Indian Express says, "Given the intimidating expectations riding on it, the first novel in Amish’s Ram Chandra series, Scion of Ikshvaku, does not disappoint.