Avasarpini, the descending half of the Jain wheel of time, unfolds across six ages, aras, each shorter and less fortunate than the one before. The first, susama-susama, extremely happy, is an age of effortless abundance, when wish granting trees supply every need and people live for countless years in near painless comfort. The second, susama, happy, and the third, susama-dusama, more happy than unhappy, see comfort gradually give way to labour and want, and it is near the end of the third era that the Jain tradition places the birth of Rishabhanatha, the first of the twenty four Tirthankaras, the ford makers who teach the path to liberation in each half cycle.
The fourth age, dusama-susama, more unhappy than happy, is by far the most significant to Jain history, since it is here that twenty three further Tirthankaras appear, ending with Mahavira, the twenty fourth, whose death traditionally closes the era a few years afterward. The fifth age, dusama, unhappy, is the one Jain tradition holds the world to be living through now, reckoned to have begun shortly after Mahavira's death and destined to last twenty one thousand years, a long decline in virtue, lifespan and stature with no Tirthankara to guide it. The sixth and final age, dusama-dusama, extremely unhappy, brings near total degeneration, before the wheel turns and utsarpini, the ascending half, begins.