India. Buddhism/ Hinduism/ Brahanism. Renunciation of the caste systems. Plus Hitler.

There are too many things to discuss in the first fifteen chapters of this novel, so I will do my best to keep it short.

First, India. In chapter 12 Edward Bulwer Lytton admits the similarity between Vril-ya's language and the Sanskrit, the standardized dialect of Old-Indo-Aryan (and also the cousin of Pali language by which a great collection of scriptures in Theravada Buddhism was preserved). This by itself is not sufficient to ground the realm of Vril as an India-inspired land. But there's more. A quick Google search shows that Edward's son Robert Bulwer-Lyttons became the Governor-General of India three years after his father's death (Link here). This goes to show that at the very least there is an indirect link between Edward and India. Most likely he had gone to India some time in his youth (which parallels the narrator's decision to satisfy his "taste for travel and adventure" (Chapter 1)) and decided to convert this experience into writing a piece of novel that turns the Plato's allegory of the cave upside down. In the Platonic cave, a man coming from the outside of the cave with the sun behind his back (representing enlightenment and/or spiritual knowledge) creates a shadow figure so much larger that himself onto the walls of the cave, and literally overshadowing the creatures (or men) residing within. And here in this novel, after fifteen chapters we can see how the subterranean races of Vril are doing the complete opposite upon the narrator.

Keep the idea of "upside down" in mind as we take a look at the narrator's descriptions and discussions of religions and politics in the land of Vril-ya and compare them to the Indian caste system and its dynamic with Brahmanism, Hinduism and Buddhism (I'm not going into great details about role reversal between the sexes as it is transparent enough). This will help us understand why Edward chose to take his inspiration from the Colonial India under British's rule. Again, let's look at chapter 12. This chapter is particularly designed to demonstrate a point made about language by the narrator, which is that "as the inflectional stage prevailed over the agglutinative, it is surprising to see how much more boldly the original roots of the language project from the surface that conceals them." (I am reading the Gutenberg version, so I'm sorry if you have trouble finding the quote). An extremely, for a lack of a better term, mind-blowing example that reveals the language-physical space-time relationship is the use of the phrases "bodh" and "veedya". In both Sanskrit and Vril-ya's language, "bodh" means "spiritual knowledge/ awakening". In Sanskrit specifically, the phrase "bodh" is frequently associated with the name "Bodhisattva", meaning enlightenment (bodhi-) beings (satvva). Denise Leidy, author of "The Art of Buddhism", has this to say about Bodhisattva:
                       "In early writings, it is used to describe [the original Buddha] prior to his enlightenment as well as other practitioners who were also trying to become buddhas. In latter traditions, Bodhisattva also identifies both human and celestial saviors, who have achieved perfect understanding but choose to remain the phenomenal world to help and guide other sentient beings." (p.33)

In Buddhism tradition,  Buddhists practitioners hold the names Buddha and Bodhisattva in great respect, just as much as they treat "vidya", a Sanskrit phrase denoting awareness and learning the Buddha's teachings. In Hinduism, however, "vidya" means "learning" in a secular sense, not celestial. For instance, a Hinduist may think of mathematical computation as "vidya" whereas a Buddhist may not. And for Hinduism, the caste system is acceptable, but for Buddhism it is not. The caste system, originated from Brahmanism - the predominant religion in India during the Buddha's time - divides humans into four castes as illustrated below.

 The caste system's resemblance of a pyramid is not an accident, and neither is the legend behind it. Let's dissect the latter first. Brahmins, the priests (also the creators of the caste system), dictated that all humans were originally parts of God's body: the Brahmins themselves come from the mouth, Kshatriya the arms, Vaisya the thighs, and Sudras the feet (Pariah are "outcastes", literally outcasts, and therefore are not a part of God). Over the course of Indian history, Hinduism absorbed the caste system and given it religious sanction and legitimacy and helped keep it alive until this very day. In other words, by uniting the people under religion, the Brahmins have granted themselves authority with little need for constructing agovernment, which is eerily analogous to Edward's observation of the social landscape of Vril-ya: "They have a proverb, the pithiness of which is much lost in this paraphrase, "No happiness without order, no order without authority, no authority without unity." (Chapter 9)

The historical Buddha, himself born into the warrior caste, after realizing the sufferings of his fellow men, was vocally anti-caste. This is evident in his deliberate redefinition of "vidya" to denote Buddhist follower's understanding of his teachings, because - and this is Edward's note of Vril-ya language - "the letter V [is ] symbolical of the inverted pyramid." (chapter 12). More evidence of correlation between Buddhism and the religion that is dominant in the land of Vril-ya can be found in the beginning of chapter 14.

I will summarize my arguments with a picture to make my key points clear.

The fact that "veedya", Vril-ya's version of "vidya", means "immortality" makes perfect sense if we  think of the former phrase's longer vowel as representing the emphasis of the notion of "learning" to the point of transcendence. And in Buddhism, to get out of the never-ending reincarnation cycle and transcend is the ultimate goal for all Buddhist practitioners. But ultimately, the picture above, showing "bodhi" acting as a pivot point around which all things are inverted and from which "veedya"protrudes downward , proves how language of the Subterranean race Vril reflects "the surface that conceals [it]. Religion and politics have been turned on their heads into a melting pot, where all their quarrels and conflicts melt away, leaving this utopian society behind like a precipitate of a chemical experiment.
Edward as the narrator goes to great length to construct a new type of language based on Sanskrit (not to mention Latin; the declensions of nouns in chapter 12 are, to me at least, haunting reminders of Latin grammar and vocabulary) in order to make subtle remarks on the political landscape at the time (and to make a money by writing something that appeals to the innate curious nature of the public). In his mind, Caste, Democracy, Republic, even Communism (note his use of the phrase "property held in common" in chapter 9. also, Communist Manifesto was published in 1848, almost three decades before "Coming of Race"), all are inferior to this ideal, utopian society where there are no "difference of rank or position between the grades of wealth or the choice of occupations, each pursues his own inclinations without creating envy or vying; some like a modest, some a more splendid kind of life; each makes himself happy in his own way." (Chapter 9). This may seem counter-intuitive when we see that he attempts to argue for human race's superiority near the end of chapter 15, and all the more so when we realize that he borrows contradicting ideas, namely caste and Buddhism, and attributes them into a singular utopian society. However, the fact that Alp-Lin and Zee defeats his argument so quickly,  symbolizes for this radical, and secret, wish of his.

Finally, how does Hitler fit into all of this? Answer: swastika. Here's the Buddhist Swastika.

Here's Hitler's Swastika:

Talk about Aryan master race.