This swar group — ग म प नि नि सं नि ध प, मं प, ग म ग — is known as which raga?

Concept

A raga in Hindustani classical music is identified not just by which swaras (notes) it uses, but by its aroha (ascending movement), avaroha (descending movement), and chalan/pakad — a short signature phrase that carries the raga's identity without needing to span every note it permits. Ragas sharing many of the same notes can still be entirely different if their characteristic turns — including a fleeting embellishing touch such as a tivra (sharp) note — differ.

Application

Reading the given swar-samuh phrase by phrase:

• Ascending run — ग म प नि नि सं: touches Ga, Ma, Pa, Ni and Sa' — Re never appears in this ascent.

• Descending run — सं नि ध प, मं प, ग म ग: after Sa', the phrase comes through Ni, Dha, Pa, then a fleeting touch of tivra (sharp) Ma before returning to Pa, and finally settles into the closing turn Ga-Ma-Ga.

This Pa-tivra Ma-Pa-Ga-Ma-Ga turn is the single most commonly cited textbook pakad of Raag Vihag: the brief touch of tivra Ma between Pa and Ga, immediately followed by the shuddha-Ma-anchored Ga-Ma-Ga close, is exactly how Hindustani music pedagogy identifies this raga. Combined with an aroha that never touches Re, this swar-samuh matches Vihag's documented chalan precisely — Vihag is an audav-sampoorna raga of the Bilaval thaat.

Cross-check

Raag Kalyan, closely related to Yaman within the Kalyan-thaat family, likewise leans on a prominent, recurring Re through its phrases and does not carry Vihag's tivra-Ma touch between Pa and Ga — the given phrase does not fit that movement. Yaman itself is defined by exactly that Re-anchored aroha-avaroha (Ni-Re-Ga-Ma-Dha-Ni-Sa is its textbook phrase); a passage with no Re and a Pa-tivra Ma-Pa-Ga turn is not Yaman's chalan. Bilaval, the shuddha (all-natural-note) raga of its own thaat, moves through Re and Dha freely in both the rise and the fall rather than skipping them in the ascent, and carries no tivra note at all — so it does not match either. Only Vihag's combination — an aroha skipping Re, and the tivra-Ma touch resolving through Ga-Ma-Ga — matches this swar-samuh, confirming Raag Vihag.