Did people lie in the 4th ara
Short answer: Yes, but not with a fixed number. In the 4th ara (Dukhama-sukhamā) of the Jain time cycle, people lived extremely long at first, but the maximum lifespan steadily decreased as the era progressed. There isn’t one universal “common age” for the whole ara.
What this means in simple terms:
- At the start of the 4th ara, the maximum possible lifespan was extraordinarily large (often described in cosmology as vast).
- As time went on in the 4th ara, lifespans shortened gradually.
- By the end of the 4th ara we enter the 5th ara, where lifespans are much shorter (commonly cited around 125–130 years in many texts).
So, the question isn’t about a single age people all shared, but about a period in which lifespans progressively declined from an immense start toward the more familiar human lifespans of later eras. In Digambar and Śvetāmbara traditions there are variations in the exact figures, but the overall pattern of a decreasing lifespan in the 4th ara is consistent.
You can read more here and a concise note on how long one aara lasts and its characteristics here .