Bharatanatyam is the contemporary name for an idiom of dance from Tamilnādu in South India, which is the most widely known and popular of dance forms performed in India today. Until the early nineteen thirties, it was referred to locally in the Madras area simply as nautch or as sādir-nautch and dāsi āttam, which means dance of the devadasis'. Devadasis (literally, 'female servants of God') were women dedicated to temple service, who performed dances as part of the many rituals connected with a temple. On special occasions such as marriages they would be invited to perform at the houses of prominent citizens. Some were attached to the courts of kings and expected to dance at the palace, for which they received a salary. A descendent of mythical Apsārās, Dēvadāsis became a mortal representation of the celestial, participating in religious rituals and community celebrations.

The artistic culture of modern India saw movements for both the abolition of sādir and the revival of ‘classical’ dance during India’s fight for independence. 1933 is considered a turning point in the history of this idiom, for on the first of January of that year an extremely successful performance was held under the aegis of the respected Madras Music Academy.Over the next twenty years young girls from 'respectable' families began to study sādir nautch, or Bharatanatyam, as it was now called, and to present it to urban audiences not only in Madras, but in the major cities of the north as well. Today it is regarded by Indians both as a paradigm of dance and as an epitome of their ancient culture. The name given to the idiom has played a not insignificant part in its present popularity and status. 'Bharatanatyam' means 'the dance theatre of Bharata', the writer to whom is ascribed the oldest surviving treatise on Indian theatre -- the Nāṭyaśāstra. By referring to the dance of the devadasis by this term the revivalists made the point that these dances followed aesthetic and technical precepts that had been laid down in the ancient Sanskrit text.