Ekasana, Beasana, Ayambil and Upvaas: Types of Tap

All four are forms of tap — austerity — and all four are undertaken as a pachchakkhan (Prakrit pachchakkhāṇ, Sanskrit pratyākhyāna), the formal vow a Jain takes to observe a restraint for a set period. Pachchakkhan is counted among the six essential daily duties of a householder.

They are not four points on a single scale. The tradition sorts them into two different austerities, and the Taporatna Mahodadhi states the division in one verse:

dvi-bhaktam eka-bhaktaṃ ca saṃkhyā-kavala-dattikam / upavāsam anīraṃ ca vṛtti-saṃkṣepam uttaram

Its own gloss reads: besanu (dvi-bhakta, "two meals"), ekasanu (eka-bhakta, "one meal"), a counted number of morsels (kavala) or servings (datti), and upvaas — these belong to vritti-sankshep, the curtailing of intake. The verse immediately before it places nivi and ayambil (āchāmla) under rasa-tyag, the giving up of taste.

Ekasana means "one meal", not "one sitting". The distinction is worth keeping, because one sitting is a separate and stricter vow — ekalthana (eka-sthāna), in which the posture itself is not changed. The older Sanskrit commentaries on pratyakhyana list ten kinds of addha-pachchakkhan — navkarsi, porsi, purimaddha, ekasana, ekalthana, ayambil, abhaktartha (upvaas), panak, charam and abhigraha — with ekasana and ekalthana as two distinct entries.

Each carries a fixed number of agar, the named exceptions under which the vow is not broken: those commentaries count eight for ekasana, seven for ekalthana, eight for ayambil and five for upvaas. Two of the ekasana agar are exactly what a single-meal rule needs — outan-pasarenam, stretching the limbs, and guru-abbhutthanenam, rising to greet a guru.

Ayambil is the distinctive one. It restricts not how much is eaten but how it tastes: plain boiled food, without milk, curd, ghee, oil, sugar or spice. A canonical account of the monk Dhanna Anagar of Kakandi describes exactly this vow — he would break his fast only with lukkha, dry food of a single kind, and with nothing else. Ayambil is the practice observed through an oli, such as the oli of Vardhaman tap.

Upvaas comes in two grades: tivihar, which permits boiled water, and anir or chauvihar, which permits nothing at all.

They substitute for one another, which is the clearest statement of their relative weight. Where someone cannot complete the attham — the three-day fast of Paryushan — the texts set out equivalents: six ayambil, or nine nivi, or twelve ekasana, or twenty-four beasana. (One witness gives twenty beasana rather than twenty-four; the ordering is constant even where the count varies.) One ekasana is worth about two beasana, and one upvaas several ekasana.

All of these are bahya tapas, external austerity. Jain teaching is consistent that they matter for what they support inwardly: austerity is undertaken to stop the influx of karma and to loosen attachment, not as endurance for its own sake.

Related: Fasting in Jainism: the forms and what each one means · Navpad Oli: the nine days of ayambil · What Is Ayambil Tap in Jainism