Previous Year Question

Pair 1 is correct — Pandharpur : Chandrabhaga.

Pandharpur is located in Solapur district of Maharashtra. According to the official website of the Solapur District Administration, the Chandrabhaga (Bhima) River flows through Pandharpur city. The same government source identifies Pandharpur as an important pilgrimage centre of Shri Vitthal and Shri Rukmini and mentions religious places situated on the Chandrabhaga riverbank. Therefore, Pandharpur–Chandrabhaga is correctly matched.

Here, Chandrabhaga is not a separate independent river; the Bhima River is known as Chandrabhaga at Pandharpur. Hence, sources describing Pandharpur as lying on the Bhima do not contradict this pair.

Pair 2 is correct — Tiruchirappalli : Cauvery.

According to the Tiruchirappalli District Administration, Government of Tamil Nadu, Tiruchirappalli is situated on the banks of the Cauvery River. The Tiruchirappalli City Municipal Corporation further states that the Cauvery flows through the city in a WNW-SSE direction. The perennial Cauvery is also a major source of the city's water supply. Therefore, Tiruchirappalli–Cauvery is correctly matched.

Pair 3 is incorrect — Hampi : Malaprabha.

The official website of Vijayanagara District, Government of Karnataka, explicitly states that Hampi is situated on the bank of the Tungabhadra River, and that the Tungabhadra flows immediately to the north of the Hampi ruins. Therefore, matching Hampi with the Malaprabha River is incorrect.

According to the Central Water Commission, Malaprabha and Tungabhadra are two separate major right-bank tributaries of the Krishna River. The Malaprabha is about 304 km long with a catchment area of about 11,549 km², whereas the Tungabhadra is about 531 km long with a catchment area of about 71,417 km². This further establishes that the two are distinct rivers and that Hampi is associated with the Tungabhadra.