About Nidhi
A little curiosity can lead you deeper into the music.
Perhaps you’re at a concert, or a song is playing somewhere, and you want to know its rāgam. Look up the composition in Nidhi and follow the connections: its composer, its language, its words, and other works in the same rāgam.
Perhaps you already know your rāgams and want to explore a composer’s repertoire. Or you’d like to find the compositions in the library in a particular language. Nidhi is a place to begin, and to keep exploring.
Ways to use Nidhi
At a concert. A familiar composition begins, but you can’t quite place the rāgam or composer. Search for its name to find those details, or bring up the lyrics in the script you’re comfortable reading. With your chosen scripts downloaded beforehand, your library is there even when the concert hall’s connection isn’t.
While learning. Keep a composition’s words close by as you practise. Look up its rāgam, tālam, and composer, then explore other pieces in the same rāgam. Those connections can give a new piece a little more context and help you decide what to listen to next.
When curiosity takes over. Start with a song you love and open its composer’s page to see what else they composed. Follow a familiar title to an unfamiliar one, browse the works listed under a language, or spend some time with a rāgam’s repertoire. There’s no set route: one composition can be the beginning of an afternoon’s discovery.
Made for the moment
A useful music library should also be a pleasure to use. Nidhi pays special attention to the interface: clear typography, readable lyrics, and simple paths between compositions, rāgams, and composers. Whether you’re making a quick lookup between pieces or spending an evening discovering music, the details matter.
Take it with you
Before your next concert, open Menu → Offline on the website and download the lyric scripts you want. Wait until they’re marked Available offline, and you can search the catalog and read your saved lyrics even without a connection.
You can also install Nidhi as a progressive web app (PWA) for easy access from your home screen. Use your browser’s install option, or Share → Add to Home Screen in Safari on iPhone or iPad. Download your chosen scripts from the Offline menu before going offline.
Prefer an Android app? Download Nidhi for Android. It comes with the catalog and all six lyric scripts bundled for offline use.
Transliteration and a growing library
Nidhi aims to make names and lyrics readable across Indic languages, with particular care for the Dravidian languages at the heart of so many Carnatic compositions. ISO 15919, a standard for writing Indic scripts in Latin letters, is the direction we’re working towards. The current transliteration is based on IAST, with additional letters to preserve distinctive Dravidian sounds.
A database this large is bound to have imperfections. You may come across errors in names, composition details, or transliteration. Nidhi will evolve over time as these are identified and corrected, with the aim of making the library more accurate, consistent, and faithful to each language.
Free for non-commercial use
Nidhi is completely free to use for personal listening, learning, and exploration, with no subscription or payment required.
The bundled catalog and lyrics have separate permissions and rights; access through Nidhi does not grant permission to reuse or redistribute that material.
Credits
Nidhi’s data comes primarily from Raman Arunachalam’s Carnatic YouTube index. This collection provides the foundation for the library you explore here.
Inspiration and gratitude also go to:
- karnATik, a familiar companion for looking up compositions and lyrics.
- Lakshman Ragde, for his extensive work collecting and sharing Carnatic composition information and lyrics.
- Thyagaraja Vaibhavam by Shri V. Govindan, for its detailed exploration of Tyāgarāja’s compositions.
- The wider internet: the musicians, rasikas, writers, and patient contributors who share what they know and make discoveries like these possible.
