The Government of India honored her, in 2011, with the Padma Shri, the fourth highest civilian award, for her services to the field of art and culture.
Today, it is one of the most popular and widely performed dance styles and is practiced by male and female dancers all over the world.
"She is a saintly person, never given to publicity and hype", says noted classical dancer, Padma Subrahmanyam[2] M. K. Saroja was born on 7 April 1931 at Chennai (erstwhile Madras), in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu.
In 1961, Mohan Khokar was posted as the Special Officer for dance at the Sangeet Natak Akademi and the couple moved to New Delhi.
She has absolute 'bhakti' residing in her...", opines Leela Samson, Director of Kalakshetra[2] The legacy of M. K. Saroja remains the purity she brought into the bharatanatyam and lives through the numerous students she has tutored to fame such as Nargis Katpitia, Pratibha Pandit, Sudha Patel, Laxmi Valrani, Indrani Rehman, Yamini Krishnamurthy, Romana Agnel,[8] Shobana Radhakrishna, Rasika Khanna, Arup Ghosh, Lucia Maloney, Milena Salvini and Vidya.