[1] The novel is set in the late nineteenth century, during the British Raj, and follows the adventures of a Rajput prince who is heir to a fictional kingdom based in Deori (roughly comparable to modern Chhattisgarh).

The novel is notable for its use of the extreme "invasionist" model of Indo-Aryan migration into India, but for portraying the Aryans in a negative manner characteristic of post-World War II anti-Nazi sentiment and Dravidianist ideology of the era.

It turns out that the disruptions to the dig arose from an attempt by a group of Brahmins to conceal evidence of a terrible massacre committed by the Aryan invaders, who had built a monument to their victory and had thrown to their deaths thousands of Dravidian workers who had created it.

The monument, dedicated to Indra, is eventually uncovered, containing a large wall-carving depicting the Aryans crushing their enemies, and emphasising the racial differences between the two groups.

The defeated masses were small and squat, their faces somewhat exaggeratedly simian, sometimes beautiful, but always different, with their broad cheekbones and square shapes, from the tall, straight-nosed, lank-haired heroes who destroyed them and their works.However, further investigation reveals that a later chamber was added in which the merging of the two peoples was celebrated.