Jain fasting, tap, is graded rather than all-or-nothing. Forms range from delaying the first food after sunrise to a full day without food or water. Most are taken as a pachchakhan, a formal vow, and their timings are reckoned from local sunrise and sunset, so they shift by city and date.
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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 are the main types of Jain fasting?
Common forms include upvas, a full-day fast; ekasana, one meal in a day; biyasana, two meals; ayambil, one plain tasteless meal; and the timing vows navkarsi, porsi, tivihar and chauvihar. Each is undertaken as a pachchakhan, a formal vow, not merely an intention.
The graded structure lets a practitioner choose a level appropriate to their health, age and circumstances. Fasting in Jainism is understood as spiritual discipline, tap, aimed at reducing attachment, not as a health regimen.
Names and pronunciations vary regionally: biyasana is also beasana or beasan, ayambil is also aayambil or ambil, ekasana is also ekashan. Practice details around each vary by sect and tradition.
What is upvas?
Upvas is a full fast, traditionally reckoned from sunset the day before to sunrise the day after. In chauvihar upvas neither food nor water is taken. In tivihar upvas food is given up but boiled water is permitted during daylight hours.
Longer consecutive fasts have their own names, such as attham for three days and atthai for eight, and much longer fasts are undertaken by some practitioners, particularly during Paryushan.
Prolonged fasting carries real medical risk. Anyone considering more than a short fast, and anyone with a health condition, pregnancy or on medication, should speak to a doctor as well as to their teacher.
What is the difference between ekasana and biyasana?
Ekasana means eating one meal in a day, taken in a single sitting at one place, with boiled water permitted during daylight. Biyasana, also called beasana, permits two meals in the day, both completed before sunset, with nothing taken between them.
Both are widely used as everyday and festival-period observances because they are sustainable in ordinary working life in a way a full fast is not.
The single-sitting condition matters: rising from the seat generally ends the meal. Details of what counts, and what water is permitted, vary by tradition, so follow the form your own sangh teaches.
What do navkarsi and porsi mean?
Both are vows delaying the first food or water of the day. Navkarsi ends roughly forty-eight minutes after sunrise. Porsi ends approximately one prahar, about three hours, after sunrise. Sadh-porsi extends this further. Each is taken by reciting the Navkar mantra before eating.
Because these are counted from sunrise, the clock time changes every day and differs between cities. There is no fixed national time for navkarsi or porsi.
This site computes the times for your city and date. Always use a time calculated for your own location rather than one quoted for somewhere else.
What are tivihar and chauvihar?
These are evening vows. Chauvihar means taking neither food nor water after sunset until navkarsi the next morning. Tivihar gives up food after sunset while permitting water within limits set by one's tradition. Duvihar is a further variant permitting water, milk and medicine.
Chauvihar is the stricter and more commonly named of the two, and is closely tied to ratri bhojan tyag, the practice of not eating at night.
The exact permissions under tivihar and duvihar, including how long water may be taken, differ between traditions and teachers. Confirm the form your own sangh follows rather than relying on a general description.
Why do Jains avoid eating after sunset?
This is ratri bhojan tyag. The ahimsa reasoning is that insects and minute lives gather around food and light after dark and may be consumed unseen, so eating within daylight avoids unintended violence. Digestive and disciplinary reasons are also traditionally given.
Many teachers advise finishing the meal about forty-eight minutes, one muhurta, before sunset, so eating is completed fully in daylight rather than at the boundary.
Observance ranges from lifelong daily practice to observance only during holy periods and vows. Both are recognised; neither is the universal norm.
How are Jain fasting times calculated?
They are reckoned from local sunrise and sunset, not from fixed clock times. Navkarsi is measured forward from sunrise, porsi by a prahar after sunrise, and chauvihar from sunset. Because sunrise and sunset shift daily and by longitude, the times change every day.
This is why a time that is right in Ahmedabad is wrong in Chennai, and why yesterday's time is wrong today. Use a calculation for your own city and date.
Some communities apply small conventional adjustments to the astronomical times. If your sangh follows a particular convention, use theirs.
Frequently asked questions
It depends on the form. Chauvihar upvas permits neither food nor water. Tivihar upvas permits boiled water during daylight. Ekasana, biyasana and ayambil generally permit boiled water during daylight. Always check which form of the vow you have taken.
Boiled and cooled water is used because the boiling is held to render it free of the minute lives present in raw water, reducing the violence involved in drinking. Traditions specify limits on how long such water remains fit to drink, which vary by teaching.
The graded range of fasts exists partly so people at different life stages can participate at a level suited to them. Children often keep lighter forms such as navkarsi. Health should govern the choice; guidance from a teacher and, where relevant, a doctor is appropriate.
A pachchakhan is the formal vow of abstinence taken before observing a fast, usually recited with a set formula and often before a teacher. It is what converts the intention into an observance, and it also specifies the conditions and permitted exceptions of the fast.
Fasting is heaviest during Paryushan (Shwetambar) and Das Lakshan (Digambar), and through Chaturmas. Many also observe on specific tithis in the lunar month. Beyond that, individuals take fasts as personal discipline throughout the year.
Sources
Fasting in Jainism (general reference article)
Pachchakhan reference texts including the Navkarsi and Ayambil formulas
Oshwal Association of the UK, observance guidance
Jainworld, articles on the purpose and forms of fasting
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