Schistura madhavai differs from all its congeners from peninsular India and Sri Lanka by the combination of the following characters: 8-9 wide post-dorsal bars separated by narrow, white interspaces ¼-? the width of the bars; black bar at the base of the caudal fin arched, its posterior margin vaguely indented at bases of branched caudal-fin rays 3 and 14, wider than the interspaces on the body; 8+8 branched rays on emarginate caudal fin; incomplete lateral line ending beneath the dorsal-fin base; axillary pelvic lobe absent; adpressed pelvic fin just reaching the anus; 7½ branched rays on dorsal fin; pelvic-fin origin on a vertical through the last unbranched dorsal fin ray; and suborbital flap in males absent (Ref. 116162).