Ayambil Oli

Ayambil Oli is a nine-day Jain period of austerity devoted to purification, restraint and the Navpad—the nine supreme spiritual entities and principles honoured in Jain tradition. During Ayambil, participants take a very simple meal once a day, traditionally avoiding rich ingredients such as oil, ghee, milk products, sweets and strong spices. The purpose is not punishment of the body but reducing attachment to taste and comfort so attention can turn toward the soul. The observance is held twice each year in many Shvetambar communities, commonly during Chaitra and Ashwin. Daily worship and study focus successively on the Navpad, including the Arihant, Siddha, Acharya, Upadhyaya and Sadhu, along with right faith, knowledge, conduct and austerity. The nine disciplined days make self-control an active practice rather than an abstract ideal.

Ayambil Oli is significant to the community that observes it and helps preserve religious, family and cultural continuity.

One meal a day for nine days, boiled and without salt, oil, sugar, milk, curd, fruit or spice - usually rice, wheat or lentils with hot water. It is kept in a cycle of nine years and nine oli to complete. The ayambil shala at the temple cooks it, so nobody keeping it has to cook differently from the rest of the house.

Kept twice a year and both times for nine days - in Chaitra ending at Chaitri Poonam, and in Ashwin ending at Aso Poonam. The autumn one runs alongside Navratri, so a Jain household and its Hindu neighbours keep the same nine days for opposite reasons: fasting against feasting.