Match the following. River Confluence a. Prakashe b. Mudavad c. Mahuli d. Tulapur Rivers I. Tapi-Panzara II. Tapi-Gomati III. Bhima-Indrayani IV. Krishna-Venna
- (1)a – I, b – II, c – III, d – IV
- (2)a – II, b – I, c – IV, d – III
- (3)a – III, b – IV, c – II, d – I
- (4)a – IV, b – III, c – II, d – I
Correct — option (2): a–II, b–I, c–IV, d–III, that is, Prakashe (Tapi–Gomati), Mudavad (Tapi–Panzara), Mahuli (Krishna–Venna) and Tulapur (Bhima–Indrayani). Prakasha, a pilgrimage town on the Tapi in Nandurbar district, sits where the Gomai (Gomati) river joins the Tapi — the confluence is marked by the Sangameshwar temple and the town's cluster of temples. Mudavad, a village in Dhule district's Shindkhede tehsil, lies at the confluence of the Tapi and the Panzara, with the historic Kapileshwar temple built there by Ahilyabai Holkar. Mahuli, near Satara, is the well-known Sangam Mahuli where the Venna joins the Krishna — a major Maharashtra pilgrimage spot with the Vishveshwar and Rameshwar temples. Tulapur, near Pune, is where the Bhima and Indrayani meet (a third river, the Bhama, joins nearby too), and is historically significant as the site of Chhatrapati Sambhaji Maharaj's execution. Each of these four is a genuine, distinct river-confluence pilgrimage site in Maharashtra, and the question is testing whether a candidate can keep the four place names and the four river-pairs correctly linked rather than swapped.
- (1)a – I, b – II, c – III, d – IV — This option swaps Prakashe and Mudavad's river-pairs relative to each other (I and II interchanged) and swaps Mahuli and Tulapur's river-pairs relative to each other (III and IV interchanged), so all four pairings are wrong even though the same four places and four river-pairs both appear.
- (3)a – III, b – IV, c – II, d – I — This option attaches Prakashe to Bhima-Indrayani and Mudavad to Krishna-Venna — both confluences that are geographically nowhere near Nandurbar or Dhule district, where Prakashe and Mudavad actually sit on the Tapi. It also swaps Mahuli and Tulapur's correct pairs between each other.
- (4)a – IV, b – III, c – II, d – I — This option pairs Prakashe with Krishna-Venna and Mudavad with Bhima-Indrayani, again placing two Tapi-basin confluences (Prakashe and Mudavad, both in North Maharashtra) onto river-pairs from the Krishna and Bhima basins further south and east — a full four-way misalignment.
Maharashtra's rivers each have well-known confluence points (sangams) that have grown into pilgrimage towns, and these four — Prakashe, Mudavad, Mahuli and Tulapur — are among the most commonly cited. Getting the match right depends on knowing which district and which river basin each place actually belongs to, since a wrong pairing usually means crossing two unrelated river basins.
MPSC geography-of-Maharashtra questions regularly test river-confluence matching, because the state's major rivers (Tapi, Krishna, Bhima and their tributaries) each have a handful of named sangams that are locally famous but easy to mix up without a map in front of you.
- Prakashe, in Nandurbar district, is the confluence of the Tapi and the Gomai (Gomati) rivers.
- Mudavad, in Dhule district's Shindkhede tehsil, is the confluence of the Tapi and the Panzara rivers.
- Mahuli, near Satara, is the confluence of the Krishna and the Venna rivers.
- Tulapur, near Pune, is the confluence of the Bhima and the Indrayani rivers, and is historically the site of Sambhaji Maharaj's execution.
Prakashe and Mudavad are both Tapi-basin — check the district, not just the river name.
- Pairing a Tapi-basin confluence (Prakashe, Mudavad) with a river-pair from an unrelated southern basin (Krishna, Bhima)
- Confusing similarly structured place-and-river matching questions across different river systems in the same paper
MPSC frequently sets a four-item match between Maharashtra place names and the two rivers that meet there, scrambling the correct pairing into combinations that cross unrelated river basins. A basin-by-basin mental map of major confluences is the reliable defence.
No directly related past PYQ was found.
- practice — not a real PYQ
Tulapur, near Pune, historically significant as the site of Chhatrapati Sambhaji Maharaj's execution, lies at the confluence of which two rivers?
- (a)Krishna and Venna
- (b)Tapi and Panzara
- (c)Bhima and Indrayani
- (d)Godavari and Pravara
Answer(c) Bhima and Indrayani — Tulapur sits at this confluence, with the Bhama river joining nearby as well.
- practice — not a real PYQ
Sangam Mahuli, a pilgrimage site near Satara, marks the confluence of which two rivers?
- (a)Tapi and Gomati
- (b)Krishna and Venna
- (c)Bhima and Indrayani
- (d)Tapi and Panzara
Answer(b) Krishna and Venna — the Vishveshwar and Rameshwar temples mark this confluence near Satara.