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raw vegetables. Some aspirants undertake the ayambil fast by only eating one item of food.
Upavaas: This vow involves not taking any food for a period of twenty-four hours; there are two versions: if no water is drunk, it is cauvihaar upavaas, but if some boiled water is drunk only during daylight hours, it is tivihaar upavaas.
Chatha: It is vow of continuous two-day fast, similar to upavaas. Attham: It is continuous three-day fast, similar to upavaas.
Atthai: This is a continuous eight-day fast, similar to upavaas. Many aspirants undertake this austerity during the sacred days of paryusana, described in chapter 5.6.
Maasaksamana: It is a continuous thirty-day fast, similar to upavaas. It is a very rigorous austerity and is considered a sign of great piety.
In some cases, aspirants fast for differing periods, ranging from four days to as much as three months. In exceptional cases continuous fast have lasted longer. One such case was the fast by Sahaja Muni in Bombay in 1995, which lasted 201 days.
Vardhammana tapa: It is a vow of progressive fast, where an aspirant will observe one ayambil and one upavaas, followed by two ayambils and one upavaas, then three ayambils and one upavaas, building up to one hundred ayambils and one upavaas.
Navapada oli: It is the vow of nine continuous ayambils, observed twice yearly with a specific form of worship, holy recitation, meditation and other rituals in honour of the ‘nine objects of veneration' (navapad). Some worshippers observe nine such olis, over a period of four and a half years, a total of eighty-one ayambils.
Varsitapa: This is a year-long austerity, observed from the eighth day of the dark half of the month of Caitra to the third day of the bright half of the month of Vaisakh (aksaya tritiya) of the following year. The aspirant undertakes upavaas one day and biyaasan the next day, again upavaas on the third day, and so on. Sometimes, during the period of this austerity, the aspirant undertakes continuously two-day upavaas, because of a Jain holy day coming on the following day of the upavaas and it is followed by one biyaasan. Varsitapa continues for more than a year, and is broken on the day called akshay tritiya by accepting sugar-cane juice, which commemorates Risabhdeva, the first tirthankara, who fasted completely for a similar period and broke his fast by accepting sugar-cane juice from his grandson, Shreyansakumar.
Upadhaan tapa: This is a special collective group austerity, under the guidance of a senior ascetic, which lasts twenty-eight, thirty-five or forty-seven days, whereby a celebration takes place on its conclusion. The participants observe alternate upavaas and ayambil, or a special ekaasan, known as nivi, and perform rituals unique to this occasion, together with scriptural study.
Visasthanaka tapa: It is the austerity of fasting and special worhip of the twenty objects of veneration, where aspirants, observing continuous upavaas, worship each object for twenty days. The fifteenth object of veneration is worshipped for forty days, observing upavaas. Fasting may be complete or partial. The twenty objects of veneration are: the tirthankara, the siddha, the fourfold order, the aacaarya, senior ascetics, the preceptor, the sage, knowledge, faith, reverence, conduct, celibacy, rituals, austerity, Gautama (the chief disciple of Mahavira), service, restraint, empirical knowledge, scriptural knowledge, and the holy places. The scriptures affirm that all tirthankaras
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