The Bhairav Thaat is one of the ten that make up the melakarta system, which categorizes all 72 melakartas into ten distinct groups. Bhairav thaaat is a combination of Kalyan raga and its fifth variant called Varunapriya (Dheerashankarabharanam). Bhairav thaat is one of the ten basic thaats used in Hindustani music. A thaat is a set of seven notes upon which a melody can be constructed using various swarams. The bhairav thaat is popularly known as the Bhairavi thumri, though it has no connection with the raga of the same name.