Pathogenic variability studies in bean common mosaic virus (BCMV) infecting common bean (Phaseolus vulgaris L.) revealed the existence of two pathogroups PG-I and PG-II and four strains (NL-1, NL-1n, NL-7 and NL-7n) in Himachal Pradesh, a North-Western Himalayan state of India. Two strains, NL-1 and NL-7 were identical to the previously described NL-1 and NL-7 strains from Europe and USA, whereas the other two designated as NL-1n and NL-7n differed from earlier identified strains with respect to their necrotic reaction on cultivar Jubila at high temperature (>30°C). Reverse phase HPLC peptide profiling of tryptic digests of coat protein of these strains further confirmed that NL-1, NL-1n, NL-7 and NL-7n are distinct from each other. This study constitutes the first record of pathogenic variability in BCMV infecting common bean in India.