The Vedic culture with its emphasis on Sanskrit, bound the whole of India with a common religion philosophic ethos which particularly influenced the aesthetic approach in the art forms. Literature, painting, sculpture, dance and music as well as theatre all strived to move on the same spiritual path. In this integrated approach, each discipline gave unto others and also drew from them. What was expressed with words in poetry or literature acquired a visual dimension in the dance and what the dance did inspired the sculptor who immortalized the movement from dance on stone. The poetic word wrapped in the harmony of melody has always provided the textual format for the dance compositions. All art forms were part of one canvas. The total theatre of India was discussed in a treatise on dramaturgy called the Natya Sastra.

In her research, Dr. Padma Subrahmanyam found movements frozen in sculptures and looked for the dynamism of those movements. Soon she was practicing those movements in her dance and proved that Karanas as commonly believed then were not static poses in dance but unit movements. She began to use the Karanas she was studying in her dance.

The classical dance of South India was earlier called Sadir (presentation) or Dasi Attam (dance of the slave) referring to the practice of dedicating young girls to the profession of dancing as part of the ritual in temples. In her study of Natya Sastra, Dr. Padma found that among the three kinds of expression of body language of dance as described in it, Nritta (body language), Nritya (expression combining body and facial expressions) and Natya (drama), the term Nritya applied the best to the practiced dance form now called Bharatha Natyam and called her dance Bharatha Nrityam.

Padma Subrahmanyam is credited with recreating a tradition called Margi. Margi as sighted in the Natya Sastra is the classical tradition and Desi is the regional style that is practiced in the different regions. Margi was a classical style that united all of the Indian sub continent panning from Afghanistan to the Indonesian islands. In medieval times the classical style common to all these regions, got lost and regional varieties of dance now known as the seven classical dance styles of Kathak, Manipuri, Odissi, Kuchipuri, Bharathanatyam, Kathakali and Mohiniattam gained the classical status.