SSC CGL 2024 Tier-I · 17 September 2024, Shift 2 · General Awareness · Question 17 of 100

Text as printed on a candidate's response sheet for this shift; answer per SSC's tentative key as marked on that sheet. Solution last reviewed 6 September 2026.

Where this paper and its answers come from

SSC does not publish CGL question papers or a public answer key. The questions and options here are reproduced as printed on a candidate's own response sheet for this shift — the Commission's text, unchanged. Each answer is SSC's tentative key as marked on that sheet; SSC allowed challenges to it and never publishes a final key. The solutions are written by UnlockIAS.

In the ancient temple of Mahadev at Mahabaleshwar, the spout emerging from the mouth of a cow statue is the source of which river basin?

(a)Kaveri
(b)Godavari
(c)Narmada
(d)Krishna

Answer

Why

Correct — D. Mahabaleshwar sits on the crest of the Western Ghats in Satara district, Maharashtra, and the temple spout shaped as a cow's mouth is the traditional source of the Krishna.

From there the river runs east across the Deccan through Maharashtra, Karnataka, Telangana and Andhra Pradesh, and empties into the Bay of Bengal.

That is the basin the temple marks — option (d).

Why the others are wrong

(a)
Kaveri — The Kaveri rises at Talakaveri in the Brahmagiri hills of Kodagu district, Karnataka. Its source is nowhere near Maharashtra.
(b)
Godavari — The Godavari also rises in the Western Ghats of Maharashtra, but at Trimbakeshwar near Nashik, well north of Mahabaleshwar.
(c)
Narmada — The Narmada rises at Amarkantak in Madhya Pradesh and flows west into the Arabian Sea, so it matches neither the source nor the direction here.

Concept

Peninsular rivers are learned as a triple — source, direction, sea — and Mahabaleshwar is the source that belongs to the Krishna.

The Western Ghats run close to the west coast, so a river rising on their eastern side has a long journey east to the Bay of Bengal. The Krishna, Godavari and Kaveri all do this. The Narmada and Tapi are the west-flowing exceptions.

Local tradition at Mahabaleshwar names several streams issuing from the same spot, the Krishna being the one that grows into a major river.

The stem describes the temple rather than naming the river's source directly, so the question is really testing whether you can attach Mahabaleshwar to a river at all.

Key facts

The Krishna rises at Mahabaleshwar in the Western Ghats, Satara district, Maharashtra.
It flows east through Maharashtra, Karnataka, Telangana and Andhra Pradesh into the Bay of Bengal.
The Godavari rises at Trimbakeshwar near Nashik, also in the Western Ghats of Maharashtra.
The Narmada rises at Amarkantak in Madhya Pradesh and flows west into the Arabian Sea.

Study next

Sources of the peninsular rivers including the Krishna, Godavari, Kaveri, Narmada and TapiEast-flowing versus west-flowing rivers of peninsular IndiaMajor tributaries of the Krishna such as the Bhima and the Tungabhadra

Common traps

Swapping the two Maharashtra Ghat sources. Mahabaleshwar is the Krishna and Trimbakeshwar the Godavari.
Assuming a river rising close to the west coast must flow west. The Krishna crosses the whole peninsula eastward.

SSC asks peninsular drainage by source, by direction or by outfall. This paper puts the outfall question directly at GA Q.13, which asks which peninsular river falls into the Arabian Sea, and the east-flowing side is asked at 18 Sep 2024, 12:30, GA Q.7.

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.