Vāgdhenu: A New Sanskrit Chanting TTS System for Accurate Recitation

Vāgdhenu: A Sanskrit Chanting TTS System

I built Vāgdhenu, a specialized text-to-speech system that transforms Sanskrit verses into authentic chants by detecting meter and preserving complex phonetics. The model, retrained on a dedicated corpus, powers the Bhāgavata-VāNi app for the Śrīmad Bhāgavatam and Vāgbodhinī, a tutor that scores your pronunciation syllable by syllable. This tool overcomes previous technical hurdles to render dense conjuncts and retroflex sounds with expert-level accuracy.

"The retrained model reaches an expert MOS of about 4.6, and dense conjuncts — including retroflex aspirates — render correctly, the class earlier architectures could not crack."