Piper TTS Old Hindi Voices Madhur & Swara: Where They Went + Direct Download Links for the Current Best Ones
Yeah, I saw your post hunting for those two specific older Hindi models — Madhur and Swara. A lot of people used them back when Piper was first blowing up, and they just disappeared from the official collection.
I checked the latest Piper repo, Hugging Face, GitHub, and community archives as of April 2026. Here’s exactly what’s going on and what you can actually use right now.
What Happened to Madhur and Swara
Those two voices were part of the early experimental/community batch. They never got added to the cleaned-up official v1.0+ release and are no longer hosted anywhere public. No mirrors, no old archives, and nothing turns up in current searches or the VOICES.md list. They’re simply gone from circulation.
The only Hindi voices officially available and maintained right now are:
-
pratham (medium)
-
priyamvada (medium – female)
-
rohan (medium – newer male)
Direct Download Links for the Working Hindi Voices
Here are the exact files you need (both the .onnx model and the matching .onnx.json config). Drop them into your Piper voices folder and they work instantly.
1. hi_IN-pratham-medium (very natural all-rounder)
-
Model: hi_IN-pratham-medium.onnx
-
Config: hi_IN-pratham-medium.onnx.json
2. hi_IN-priyamvada-medium (clear female voice)
-
Model: hi_IN-priyamvada-medium.onnx
3. hi_IN-rohan-medium (solid male voice)
-
Model: hi_IN-rohan-medium.onnx
-
Config: hi_IN-rohan-medium.onnx.json
Want to hear them first? Check the official samples here: Piper Voice Samples – Hindi
Other Useful Options If You Need More Hindi Voices
-
Community voice collections (sometimes people share older packs): Home Assistant Piper Voices Thread
-
Lightweight dedicated Hindi TTS alternative: Vani-TTS (on-device, very fast)
Quick Tip
Always download both the .onnx and .onnx.json files together and keep the exact same filename (just different extensions). That’s the only way Piper loads them properly.
Quick Hits
The three voices above are the current standard and sound pretty close to what a lot of people liked about the older models.
No working links exist for the exact Madhur or Swara files anymore, so these are your best bet without having to train anything yourself.
That should get you sorted fast.
!