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( Tirthankaras ), although their version is that their religion is eternal.
2. The Tirthankars Jinas) do not become the disciple of any second person. They themselves obtain omniscence by meditation and then preach the same doctrines as their predecessors [previous Tirthankars] did. Parsvanath was the predecessor of Mahavira and the parents of the latter were the followers of the order of Parsvanath hence it follows that Jainism existed even before him and Mahavira was born of a Jaina family. At the age of 30 he rununciated everything and began practising penances and meditations as a Jaina Monk, on the same lines as Parswanath, the 23rd Tirthankara and his 22 predecessors did.
3. It is altogether wrong and baseless.Mahavira never joined and so could never give up any order. He never founded any system of his own. But after obtaining omniscence independently preached the same tenets as were preached by his predecessors. So the question of his giving up the order at the age of 40 and founding a religious sytem of his own does not arise but is obvious rather that Jainism did exist
( time of decline ) and then have again subdivided those parts into 6 parts called 6 Aras. In the third and fourth aras of the Utsarpinï and avasarpinikal there happen to be 24 Jinas or Tirthankaras hence 48 in a.complete cycle.
