In Jainism, Arihant is a step before becoming siddha. Ari means enemy and has means to destroy i.e. one who destroys the enemy in form of karma enemy is Arihant. When an individual destructs his four Ghati karmas he is an Arihant. They keep living until they attain the Siddha status. Having destroyed the enemy in form of karma he becomes the Kewal-Gyan. He has regained the original attributes of his soul, which are ideal knowledge, vision, power, and happiness. He is aware of the past, present and future forms of all entities both living and nonliving beings of the world. He remains in the state of blissful condition for the rest of his life. An arihant is also called a jina "conqueror". Arihant is not a synonym for tirthankara. It only refers to certain arihants who have certain karmas that allow them to be spiritual leaders.

Classification of Arihant
Arihants are classified into two categories:

Tirthankara: After attainig Kewal-Gyan, if an individual establishes the four fold religious order of monks, nuns, sravaks (malebhouseholder), and sravikas (female householder) he is known as Tirthankara. He preaches about the Jain doctrine, religion, morals, conducts to his devotees. According to Jainism Twenty four Tirthankars are born during each descending and ascending part of the time cycle. Two Tirthankaras do not exist at the same time and they are born for the revival of religion when it is in a depression state. Tirthankara is also known as Jin, Arihant, Arhat, Arhant, or Nirgrantha.

Simple Kewali: The only difference between Tirthankara and simple kewali is that the latter doesn`t establish the religious order. He remains in the state of ideal blissful condition for the rest of his life after achieving Kewal-Gyan.

Beliefs of Arihant
According to Jains the arihant has overcome his anger, ego, deception. He has also won over inner enemies or kashayas responsible. When that happens, the person is able to destroy the four ghati karmas, namely Darshanavarniya (perception blocking) Karma, Jnanavarniya (knowledge blocking) Karma, Antaraya "obstacle-causing" karma and Mohniya (passion causing) Karma. Thus the arihant becomes passionless, gains infinite power, Kevala Jnana, and Kevaldarshan.

During the time of nirvana, the arihant gets rid off the remaining four aghati karmas which are:
* Nam (physical structure forming) Karma
* Gotra (status forming) Karma,
* Vedniya (pain and pleasure causing) Karma,
* Ayushya (life span determining) Karma.

As the above mentioned karmas do not affect the true nature of the soul it is known as aghati karmas. The arihants are called siddhas after they attain salvation or nirvana.