Jain fasting is graded, and the vocabulary is the point. Nobody undertakes “fasting” in general. A person takes navkarsi, or ekasana, or ayambil, or a tivihar upvas, or atthai, and each of those is a different, specific, stated vow with a defined beginning and end.
This page sets out the whole ladder, from the mildest daily pachkhan to the thirty-day fast, with what each one actually permits. Most of these levels are taken during Paryushan, which is why the vocabulary gets its heaviest use in that week, but every one of them is kept year-round on the parva tithis as well.
One thing to establish before the table. A vow is defined by its own terms, not by how hard it looks. A navkarsi kept honestly for a year is worth more in the tradition’s own reckoning than an atthai begun for display and broken in resentment. The ladder is not a leaderboard.
The ladder
| Vow | What it means | Water |
|---|---|---|
| Navkarsi | No food or water until two ghadis, forty-eight minutes, after sunrise | After navkarsi time |
| Porsi | Nothing until one quarter of the day has passed from sunrise | After porsi time |
| Sadh porsi | Nothing until three-eighths of the day has passed | After that time |
| Purimuddha | Nothing until half the day has passed, so roughly midday | After that time |
| Avaddha | Nothing until three-quarters of the day has passed | After that time |
| Biyasana | Food taken on two occasions in the day, seated, nothing between | Permitted |
| Ekasana | Food taken once, seated, in a single sitting; you do not rise and return | Permitted |
| Ayambil | One bland meal in a single sitting: boiled grain and pulse, no salt, oil, ghee, milk, curd, sugar, fruit, green vegetable or spice | Boiled water only |
| Nivi | One meal in a single sitting, without the six vigai (milk, curd, ghee, oil, sugar, fried food) | Permitted |
| Upvas (tivihar) | A full day without food; boiled water permitted between sunrise and sunset | Boiled water, daytime only |
| Upvas (chauvihar) | A full day without food, water, dry food or anything taken for taste | None |
| Chhatth (bela) | Two consecutive days of upvas | As above |
| Attham (tela) | Three consecutive days of upvas | As above |
| Atthai | Eight consecutive days of upvas, the classic Paryushan vow | As above |
| Maskhaman | Thirty consecutive days of upvas | As above |
Two clarifications that come up constantly.
Chauvihar is not only a length of fast. In ordinary use it is also the daily vow of taking nothing after sunset, which a large number of Jain households keep every day of the year regardless of whether they are fasting. Tivihar is the same evening vow with water permitted. When someone says “we are chauvihar”, they usually mean this, not a full-day fast.
Ayambil is not a light fast. It is one meal, but the meal is deliberately stripped of everything that makes food pleasant, and that is the entire mechanism. Upvas removes food; ayambil removes taste while leaving the body fed. Nine consecutive days of it are kept twice a year at Navpad Oli, and a very large ayambil practice is maintained year-round in ayambil shalas attached to most sanghs.
The times are yours, not a printed table’s
Navkarsi, porsi, sadh porsi, purimuddha and avaddha are fractions of your own daylight. Navkarsi is forty-eight minutes after your sunrise. Purimuddha is the midpoint between your sunrise and your sunset. Chauvihar begins at your sunset.
This is not a technicality outside India. In Ahmedabad in September the interval between sunrise and sunset is a little over twelve hours and the fractions come out close to the printed cards. In Toronto in December they do not come close at all, and a card computed for one city is the wrong calculation everywhere else.
Pachkhan times for your own city
The Jain Panchang computes navkarsi, porsi, sadh porsi, purimuddha, avaddha and chauvihar from the sunrise and sunset at your coordinates, alongside the tithi and whether the day is a parva. If your upashray publishes its own times, use those: the vow is kept with your sangh, not with a website.
Where fasting sits in the doctrine
Fasting is not an end in itself, and the tradition is explicit about this.
The Tattvartha Sutra lists twelve austerities, six external and six internal. The external six are anashana (fasting), avamaudarya (eating less than appetite), vritti-parisamkhyana (restricting what one will accept), rasa-parityaga (giving up rich and tasty food), vivikta-shayyasana (solitary lodging) and kaya-klesha (endurance of bodily hardship). Every fasting term in the table above is an instance of one of the first four.
The internal six are penance, humility, service to the ascetics and the sick, study, non-attachment to the body, and meditation. The framework puts the external six first in the list and last in importance: they exist to make the internal six possible. Fasting that produces irritability, self-congratulation or a competitive interest in what other people are keeping has inverted the order.
This is also the doctrinal answer to why the chart does not decide anything. The Jain reading of a birth chart treats the grahas as indicators of karma already bound; tapas is one of the instruments by which that karma is actually shed. A fast is an act, not an appeasement.
The long vows
Chhatth, attham and atthai are the ordinary multi-day fasts. Attham, three days, is the one most widely kept during Paryushan by people who cannot keep eight, and many sanghs organise it across the last three days ending on Samvatsari. Atthai, eight days, is the vow the whole Shvetambara week is built around.
Maskhaman, thirty days, is undertaken by a small number of people each year and is invariably done under close supervision.
Siddhitap is a structured cycle rather than a single stretch: a rising ladder of fasts separated by single days of eating, running some seven weeks in total.
Varshitap is the year-long alternate-day fast, upvas and biyasana in strict alternation for thirteen months and thirteen days, begun on Phalguna Krishna 8 and broken on Akshaya Tritiya with sugarcane juice. In 2026 it began on Wednesday 11 March, and the varshitap begun in 2025 was broken on Sunday 19 April 2026.
None of these is begun alone. They are taken from an ascetic or through the sangh, they are declared, and they are supported. That is not ceremony; it is how the practice stays safe and honest.
Paryushan 2026: where the fasts fall
Shvetambara Paryushan runs Tuesday 8 September to Tuesday 15 September 2026, with Samvatsari on 15 September. An atthai covers the whole span. An attham is commonly kept over 13, 14 and 15 September. A very large number of people who keep nothing else keep a single upvas on Samvatsari itself.
Digambara Das Lakshana runs Wednesday 16 to Friday 25 September 2026. Practice there is built around proshadhopavasa, the fast kept on ashtami and chaturdashi, and around the ten dharmas contemplated one per day rather than around a single eight-day vow. See Das Lakshana for the day-by-day scheme, and the full-year picture on Jain festivals 2026.
Where the traditions differ
| Shvetambara | Digambara | |
|---|---|---|
| Standard bland-meal vow | Ayambil, widely institutionalised in ayambil shalas | Rasa-parityaga observed, without the same ayambil-shala structure |
| Water during upvas | Boiled water permitted in tivihar upvas | Commonly kept without water |
| Householder fast day | Parva tithis, especially Aatham and Chaudas | Proshadhopavasa on ashtami and chaturdashi |
| Signature annual vow | Atthai across the eight days of Paryushan | Fasting distributed across the ten days of Das Lakshana |
| Pachkhan vocabulary | Navkarsi, porsi, purimuddha, avaddha in daily use | Different terminology; the daily fractional pachkhan set is not used in the same way |
Neither column is a relaxation of the other. They are two developed systems, and a person should keep the one their own sangh teaches.
Practical notes, stated plainly
- Medication. A person on prescribed medication that must be taken with food is not in a position to keep upvas, and the tradition has no interest in a vow kept at the cost of health. Ask before you commit, not after.
- Diabetes, pregnancy, breastfeeding, eating disorders. These are reasons to keep a lesser vow, not reasons to be quiet and attempt a greater one. Ekasana and ayambil are real practices, not consolation.
- Children. Graded participation is the norm and there is no doctrinal merit in pushing a child past capacity. A child keeping navkarsi has kept a vow.
- Parana. Breaking a long fast is done gradually and under guidance. The day after an atthai is part of the atthai in practical terms.
- Do not announce it. Rasa-parityaga is undermined by an audience. The tradition treats a fast displayed as a fast partly spent.
Frequently asked questions
↳ Can you drink water during a Jain fast?
It depends which vow you have taken. Tivihar upvas permits boiled water between sunrise and sunset and is the common form of a full-day fast in Shvetambara practice. Chauvihar upvas permits neither food nor water. Ayambil permits boiled water alongside one bland meal. Digambara practice commonly keeps upvas without water. The level is a specific vow rather than a detail, so it is stated when the vow is taken.
↳ What is the difference between ekasana and biyasana?
Ekasana is eating once in the day, seated, in a single sitting: you sit down, you eat, you rise, and you do not return to food. Biyasana is the same discipline permitted on two occasions in the day. Both allow water. Neither is a partial upvas; they are their own vows, and in the tradition's reckoning a biyasana kept properly for a month counts for more than an upvas kept once for effect.
↳ What is ayambil and why is it considered difficult?
Ayambil is one bland meal taken in a single sitting: boiled grain and pulse, with no salt, oil, ghee, milk, curd, sugar, fruit, green vegetable or spice, and only boiled water. It is difficult precisely because the body is fed while every source of taste is removed, which is what makes it an exercise in rasa-parityaga rather than in hunger. Nine consecutive days of ayambil are kept twice a year at Navpad Oli.
↳ How long is an atthai fast?
Eight consecutive days of upvas, which is the vow the Shvetambara Paryushan week is built around. In 2026 it spans Tuesday 8 September to Tuesday 15 September. Chhatth is two days, attham three, and maskhaman thirty. All of the multi-day fasts are undertaken through an ascetic or the sangh rather than decided alone, and breaking them is done gradually under guidance.
↳ What time is navkarsi in my city?
Forty-eight minutes, two ghadis, after your own local sunrise. Because it is a fraction of your own day rather than a fixed clock time, a card printed for one city is the wrong calculation for another, and the difference is substantial outside India. The Jain Panchang on this site computes navkarsi, porsi, sadh porsi, purimuddha, avaddha and chauvihar from the sunrise and sunset at your coordinates. If your own upashray publishes times, follow those.
↳ Do I have to fast during Paryushan?
Nothing compels it, and the tradition's own framework argues against forcing it. Fasting is one of six external austerities, and the external six exist to make the six internal ones possible: study, service, humility, non-attachment, penance and meditation. A fast that produces resentment, display or ill health has inverted that order. Attending the Kalpasutra reading, keeping samayik, keeping ekasana or ayambil, and attending Samvatsari Pratikraman are full participation.
Related
- Paryushana 2026: dates, practice and what actually happens
- Navpad Oli: nine days of ayambil, twice a year
- Akshaya Tritiya and Varshitap: the year-long fast and how it is broken
- Pratikraman: turning back, and what happens in one
- Jain Panchang: parva days and pachkhan times for your city
- Jain festivals 2026: the complete calendar
Sources. The six external and six internal austerities follow the Tattvartha Sutra chapter nine. The pachkhan set and its definition as fractions of the local day follows standard Shvetambara practice and is computed on this site rather than reprinted. Fasting terminology (chhatth, attham, atthai, maskhaman, siddhitap, varshitap) is reported as it is used in Shvetambara Murtipujak and Sthanakvasi practice and labelled as such; Digambara practice uses a different vocabulary centred on proshadhopavasa and rasa-parityaga, and the differences are tabulated rather than averaged. Varshitap arambha of 11 March 2026 and parana of 19 April 2026 were checked against published Jain panchangs; Paryushan dates are computed on this site from the tithi at local sunrise, with the working shown on the Paryushana page. Health notes are practical and not doctrinal; no page can substitute for the guidance of your own sangh or your own doctor. Corrections are seva: tell us.