Jainism is the earliest post-vedic non-Brahminical religious faith which appeared in northern India in the first millenium B.C. It’s earliest exponent was rsabha-the first Tirthankara. It was however,finally codified by Vardhamanaor Mahavira, the 24th Tirthankara, an elder contemporary of Gautam Buddha. Born in 599 B.C., Mahavira is admittedly the founder of modern ainism.