Ayambil is a single daily meal of plain boiled food taken in one sitting, with boiled water. It excludes oil, ghee, milk, curd, sugar and jaggery, fried food, spices, fruit and green or raw vegetables. Its purpose is rasa-tyag, the deliberate giving up of taste, not simply eating less.
Text size
Pending review. This page is compiled from general
sources and has not yet been checked by a knowledgeable reviewer. Jain practice varies
between traditions, sub-sects, regions and families — please confirm anything you
intend to act on with your own guru or sangh.
What is ayambil?
Ayambil is a Jain fast in which one plain meal is taken each day, in a single sitting, made of boiled grains and pulses without any taste-giving ingredient. Only boiled water is drunk. It is one of the most widely practised austerities, especially during Navpad Oli.
The name is also written aayambil or ambil. It is taken as a pachchakhan, a formal vow, like other Jain fasts.
Many towns have an ayambil bhavan or ayambil shala attached to a temple that prepares and serves the meal during Oli, which is how most practitioners eat during those nine days.
What can you not eat during ayambil?
Ayambil food is prepared without oil, ghee, milk, curd, sugar or jaggery, and fried items. It also excludes spices, salt in some traditions, fruit, and green or raw vegetables. Anything that adds taste or richness to the boiled grain is set aside.
The six items most commonly named together in the exclusion list are sugar, milk, ghee, oil, curd and fried food. Beyond those, spices, fruit and green vegetables are also excluded.
Salt is a genuine point of variation: some traditions permit a little, others exclude it entirely. Follow the practice taught by your own sangh or ayambil shala rather than a general description.
What foods can you eat during ayambil?
Plain boiled grains and pulses form the meal: rice, wheat, and lentils or beans, cooked in water without seasoning. Rotli or khakhra made without oil is common. The meal is eaten once, in one sitting, and boiled cooled water is the only drink.
Typical ayambil food includes plain boiled rice, khichdi made without ghee or spices, plain dal, and dry rotli. Ayambil shalas prepare these in bulk during Oli.
Some traditions restrict the meal to a single grain or a small number of items. Others permit a wider set of plain preparations. Practice varies between traditions and shalas.
Why is ayambil food tasteless?
Because the purpose is rasa-tyag, giving up taste. The austerity targets attachment to flavour rather than hunger. Removing every taste-giving ingredient while still eating a full meal makes the discipline one of detachment from sensory pleasure rather than of deprivation.
This is what distinguishes ayambil from a simple fast. A person doing ayambil is not going hungry; they are eating without the pleasure of eating, which is understood to weaken the grip of the senses.
Traditional teaching connects control of the palate to control of the passions generally, which is why rasa-tyag appears among the recognised categories of external austerity.
What is Ayambil Oli or Navpad Oli?
Navpad Oli is a nine-day observance kept twice yearly, in the bright fortnight of Chaitra and of Ashwin. Practitioners perform ayambil on each of the nine days, honouring the nine padas of the Navpad.
Each of the nine days is associated with one of the nine supreme positions, and in some traditions with a colour and a grain, so the food of the day corresponds to that pada.
The observance is particularly prominent in Shwetambar Murtipujak practice. Details of the day-by-day scheme and the associated devotions differ by tradition.
How long does an ayambil last?
One ayambil covers one day: a single plain meal, with boiled water permitted during daylight, and nothing after sunset. People commonly perform them in sequences, most familiarly the nine consecutive days of Oli, and some undertake much longer series over years.
The long-form observance known as Navpad Oli tap is completed over successive years, with the nine-day Oli kept each Chaitra and Ashwin until the full cycle is finished.
As with any sustained fast, health matters. People with diabetes, on medication, pregnant, or with any chronic condition should consult a doctor before undertaking consecutive ayambils.
Can you drink water during ayambil?
Yes, boiled and cooled water is permitted during daylight hours. Nothing further is taken after sunset. The water is boiled because boiling is held to free it of the minute lives present in raw water, reducing the violence involved in drinking it.
Traditions specify how long boiled water remains fit for use before it must be replaced. Follow the guidance of your own tradition on this.
No other drink is permitted: no milk, tea, juice or sweetened water, since all of these fall under the excluded taste-giving categories.
Frequently asked questions
Practice varies. Some traditions and ayambil shalas permit a small quantity, others exclude salt entirely as a taste-giving ingredient. Because the whole purpose is rasa-tyag, the stricter reading is common. Follow the practice of your own sangh or the shala serving you.
Both involve one meal a day in a single sitting. Ekasana places no restriction on what that meal contains, so it may be ordinary food. Ayambil additionally strips the meal of oil, ghee, milk, curd, sugar, spices, fruit and green vegetables, making it the stricter of the two.
Navpad Oli falls in the bright fortnight of Chaitra and again in the bright fortnight of Ashwin. The exact dates follow the Jain lunar calendar and shift each year in the Gregorian calendar, so check your sangh's panchang rather than assuming fixed dates.
No. Fruit is among the excluded items, along with green and raw vegetables, because it supplies taste and is not plain boiled food. The meal is confined to plain boiled grains and pulses prepared without any taste-giving ingredient.
Navpad refers to the nine supreme padas venerated in the Siddhachakra: the five Parameshthis together with right faith, knowledge, conduct and austerity. Oli denotes the nine-day sequence. Practitioners perform ayambil on each of the nine days as devotion to these nine.
Sources
Oshwal Association of the UK, guidance on Shri Navpad Ayambil Oli
Ayambil pachchakhan reference texts
Fasting in Jainism (general reference article)
Young Jains of America (YJA), Navpad Oli educational material
A single message each day of Paryushan — the day's dharma, its meaning, and a thought to carry with you. Nothing else, and nothing after the festival ends.
We use your details only to send these updates — never for anything
else, and never shared. Unsubscribe at any time, and we will delete your
details on request. See our Privacy Policy.