09.03.2023

Celebration of International Women's Day at the Roerich Estate (Naggar, Kullu)

This year, International Women's Day was celebrated on March 9 at the Roerich Memorial Estate. The warm, sunny spring days in the Kullu Valley and the air filled with the scents of blossoming trees were in perfect harmony with the atmosphere of the festival of Beauty and Love.

On that festive day, Mr. Suresh Kumar, the Indian Сurator of the IRMT and Valentina Vinogradova, the assistant of Russian Curator decorated the Roerichs' monuments installed in the Estate with fragrant garlands of marigolds. An exhibition of folk art – decorations and toys created by local women living in Naggar – was opened in the Conference Hall of the IRMT. Passionate about their work, they create real works of art. Children and adults felt joy and inspiration at each of their works.

In the works of the Roerichs we find many inspirational lines addressed to women: "In the hard days of cosmic cataclysms, of human disconnection and degeneration, of forgetting all the higher principles of being that give true life and lead to the evolution of the world, a voice must rise calling for the resurrection of the spirit, for bringing the fire of the feat into all actions of life, and, of course, this voice must be that of a woman...," Nicholas Roerich wrote in his essay "To Women."  A woman as an inspirer of life's deeds, as an embodiment of wisdom, spiritual aspiration, purity and harmony, a woman as a "friend and companion" - this is the image we see in the Master's beautiful paintings.

Helena Roerich in many of her letters emphasized the exceptional role of women in the coming new era: "Yes, the salvation of mankind and the planet is now in the hands of women. The woman must realize her importance, her great mission of the Mother of the World and in full responsibility prepare to become not only a collaborator of man, but his inspirer and true mother."

Svetoslav Roerich embodied in his canvases light, beautiful and sophisticated images of his mother Elena Ivanovna Roerich, as well as his wife and muse, the Indian actress Devika Rani. These portraits became the visible embodiment of "spirituality, feat and beauty" – those qualities which Helena Roerich especially emphasized as fundamental for a woman.

A call to the work of Life, addressed to women, are the words of Helena Roerich: "I so believe in women's common sense, in women's magnetism, in women's heart and ability to selflessly work. Let us not forget that it is commanded to a woman to save the world."