The name was invented in the twentieth century by the great dancer Rukmini Devi and others. It is supposed to indicate that this style was the original style described in a book on Natya by the sage Bharata, i.e. "Bharata's Dance". The text describes poses but in the absence of illustration, the exact poses had to be re-imagined -- the quality of this re-imagination is a tribute to the intellectual and aesthetic abilities of Rukmini Devi and her teachers, but there is no other link between Bharatanatyam now and the dances described in ancient Tamil texts.