RAS question
The 24th and last Tirthankara of Jainism was:
Correct answer: (C) Mahavira.
Vardhamana Mahavira was the twenty-fourth and last Tirthankara of Jainism.
Explanation
Mahavira is identified as the twenty-fourth and last Tirthankara in the Jain tradition. The CBSE circular, citing the corrected NCERT passage, states that Jainas believe in twenty-four Tirthankaras and that the last, twenty-fourth Tirthankara was Vardhamana Mahavira. In the standard ancient-history framing, Mahavira, born as Vardhamana in Vaishali, attained Kevala Jnana after twelve years of penance and organised the Jain order around the five vows of Ahimsa, Satya, Asteya, Aparigraha and Brahmacharya. Central Board of Secondary Education, Circular No. 39/2005 also separates him from earlier Tirthankaras by naming Rishabhadev as the first and Parshvanath as the twenty-third.
Why the other options are wrong
- (A) Rishabhanatha is wrong because Rishabhadev is the first Tirthankara, not the last.
- (B) Parshvanatha is wrong because Parshvanath is the twenty-third Tirthankara, before Mahavira.
- (D) Neminatha is wrong because he is the twenty-second Tirthankara, not the twenty-fourth.
Concept
This tests the Jainism subtopic within ancient Indian religious movements: the sequence of Tirthankaras and Mahavira's place in it. RAS repeats this area because it is a compact, fact-heavy part of ancient history where first, twenty-third and twenty-fourth Tirthankaras are commonly confused.