Kural Heart Download

A journal with Thiruvalluvar

One couplet from the Thirukkural each day, a question it asks of you, and a quiet page to answer it. Your pages stay on your phone.

Download for Android or get it on F-Droid

  • Free, no ads
  • No account
  • Tamil and English
Today: Good morning, Valluvar reading in his arch with a soft heart behind him and the dawn sky, Kural 622 on its palm leaf with its pronunciation, Aiyar's English, and round buttons to listen, turn the leaf, get another couplet or share

Two lines a day, and your page

The Kural has 1,330 couplets in 133 chapters. Kural Heart brings you one each morning and asks what it means for you today.

Read it, then write

கற்க கசடறக் கற்பவை கற்றபின்
நிற்க அதற்குத் தக

Karka kasadarak karpavai katrabin · Nirka adharkuth thagaChapter 40 · கல்வி · Kural 391
  • Each couplet in Tamil, always flush left, with Aiyar's and Pope's English
  • A pronunciation line under each one, simple or scholarly (ISO 15919), for readers new to Tamil
  • A question for the mind, for speech and for action
Chapter 1, In Praise of the Lord: its ten couplets, each numbered, each in two lines, each with a star to save it

All 1,330, to read and to hear

Browse the three books by chapter, search by number or by a word in Tamil or English, and save the couplets you love. Listen reads each one in your phone's own Tamil voice, then the English if you like.

  • With Tamil first, Mu. Varadarasanar's Tamil explanation under every couplet
  • The Tamil text checked line by line against two other sources
  • Filters for saved, written about, and not read yet
Today in Tamil: காலை வணக்கம், Kural 622 on its leaf, and Mu. Varadarasanar's Tamil explanation beneath it

Your pages, as you live them

Write a line or a page. Add how you feel, a photo, a voice note or a short video, and where you were. Find it again by day, by feeling, or on a map.

  • Nine feelings, each with its own colour, and a couplet for the heavy days
  • Voice notes and videos up to a minute, locked like everything else
  • A calendar of your days, your photos together, and a map of your places
A page from Monday: Kural 391 on its leaf, the question and the answer written, a video and a voice note, and the feeling Grateful

A thread, not a streak

Two rest days a week are kept for you, so a busy day never breaks your thread. Nine seals mark the way, from your first leaf to a year with Valluvar, and Insights shows your words, your writing days and the chapters you return to.

Journey: a one-day thread, Valluvar walking with his staff, a button to see your insights, and 133 chapter beads

Share a couplet, not your diary

Turn any couplet into a story or a post, in seven looks from Tamil life: dawn, midnight, clay, peacock, banana leaf, jasmine and turmeric. Your own words are added only if you switch that on.

Sharing Kural 622 as a story in the peacock look, deep blue-green with a gold silk border, above the seven looks to choose from

Your pages are yours

Kural Heart has no account, no ads and no analytics. It goes online only for the things you turn on.

Locked on your phone
What you write, and your photos, voice notes and videos, are encrypted on the phone itself.
Backups only you can open
A backup is one file locked with a passphrase that only you know.
Google Drive, if you want it
Sync keeps that locked file in a hidden app folder in your own Drive. Kural Heart can't see anything else there, and you can delete the copy or switch accounts from the app.
Place and weather, if you ask
Your rough position is used for a page's place name and weather, only when you tap for them.
The widget
Today's couplet on your home screen. It never shows what you wrote.
App lock
Your fingerprint, face or screen lock keeps the journal closed.

Read the privacy policy

Get Kural Heart

Free for Android phones. Install it, choose Tamil or English first, and read today's couplet.

Download the APKkuralheart.apk, freeDownload Get it on F-DroidNew versions arrive by themselvesSet up Every release on GitHubWith its notes, so you can see what changedOpen

A note from Inigo

Valluvar wrote for everyone: no religion, no king, no caste, just how to live well. I wanted a way to sit with one couplet a day and actually answer it.

Your journal stays yours. There are no ads and nothing to buy, and there won't be. If a couplet looks wrong, or something's missing, write to me. I read everything.

Write to Inigo

Questions

Is it free?

Yes, completely: no ads, no subscriptions and no paid extras.

Where are my pages kept?

On your phone, encrypted. If you turn on backup or Google Drive sync, a copy goes there too, locked with your passphrase.

Why does it ask to sign in with Google?

Only if you turn on Drive sync. Kural Heart asks for one thing: its own hidden folder in your Drive, where it keeps your locked backup. It can't see or change your other files.

Which translations are there?

V. V. S. Aiyar's English (1916) and G. U. Pope's verse and prose (1886), both in the public domain, and in Tamil, Mu. Varadarasanar's Thirukkural Thelivurai (1969), which the Government of Tamil Nadu has made free for everyone.

Whose is the voice that reads the couplets?

Your phone's own: Listen uses Android's text-to-speech, which on most phones has a natural Tamil voice from Google. Choose among the voices on your phone in Settings, and add more in Android's voice settings.

Can I write in Tamil?

Yes. Kural Heart works with any Tamil keyboard on your phone, and can lead in Tamil throughout.

What if I forget my passphrase?

Nobody can open the backup without it, not even me. The pages on your phone are still there; set up backup again with a new passphrase.

How do updates arrive?

Smaller improvements arrive inside the app by themselves. For new versions, add Kural Heart to F-Droid and they arrive like any other update, or download the new APK over the old one. Either way your pages stay.

How do I delete everything?

In the app: Settings, Delete all data. To remove the copy in Google Drive, see the privacy policy.