Which of the following rivers does not originate in India?

Concept

A river's “origin” (or source) is the specific glacier, spring, or hill range where its very first waters emerge — not the country it is best known in or the country it flows through the longest. To decide whether a river originates in India, locate its actual source point, not its course or popularity.

Application

1. Kaveri: rises at Talakaveri in the Western Ghats, Kodagu district, Karnataka — its source lies entirely within Indian territory.

2. Narmada: rises at Amarkantak on the Maikal range in Madhya Pradesh — again a source inside India.

3. Ganga: rises as the Bhagirathi at Gaumukh, the snout of the Gangotri Glacier in Uttarakhand — a source inside India.

4. Brahmaputra: begins as the Yarlung Tsangpo at the Angsi Glacier near Mount Kailash in Tibet (China). It flows for over a thousand kilometres through Tibetan territory before entering India through Arunachal Pradesh — so its source point lies outside India.

Cross-check

Restricting the comparison to the four rivers offered here: Kaveri, Narmada, and Ganga each have their entire source within India, while the Brahmaputra's source lies in Tibet — making it the one outlier among these four. (Several other Himalayan-fed rivers, such as the Kosi and the Ghaghara, also rise outside India, but none of those appear among the options here.)