A samayik is a vow of equanimity held for one muhurta, 48 minutes: two ghadis of 24 minutes each. Our page on samayik explains the vow, the Karemi Bhante and what is set aside for its length. This timer does one small job: press the button as you take the vow, and it shows when the samayik began and when it ends, counts down, and marks the end with a soft chime and a vibration, so you need not watch a clock.
How it works
The length. One samayik is 48 minutes, as Natubhai Shah describes the vow in Jainism: The World of Conquerors (chapter 5.3, p. 258), and as our samayik page derives it from the muhurta. If you take two or three samayik in a row, choose that number, and the timer runs 1 hour 36 minutes or 2 hours 24 minutes and tells you when each one ends.
The clock. Start and end are shown on this device’s own clock, to the second. The end is worked out as an interval, so a clock change during the samayik does not move it: we checked the times under five time zones, including the nights the clocks change in London and New York, against the device’s own clock formatting.
The end. A soft two-note chime sounds and the phone vibrates where it can. Browsers let a page play sound only after a tap, so the tool readies the chime when you press the button; if you reload the page during a samayik, tap the page once. Phones pause web pages once the screen turns off, so the tool asks the browser to keep the screen awake while the timer runs; if your browser does not allow that, the chime can come late, and the end time on the screen is your guide.
Your count. Each completed samayik is added to a count for today, this month, this year and all time. If you reload the page, a samayik in progress carries on, and one that has ended is counted once. Stopping the timer early does not count it.
Reading the result
While the samayik runs, the page shows the time left in large figures, a bar, the start time, the end time and, for more than one samayik in a row, which one is running. At the end it says when the samayik ended and when it began, and shows your counts.
Where traditions differ
Shvetambara practice takes samayik as a vow of one muhurta, begun with the Karemi Bhante and released at the end, and counts the samayik taken. Digambara practice, as our samayik page describes, keeps samayika at dawn, midday and dusk; Natubhai Shah describes the samayika stage of a householder’s practice as three daily periods of 48 minutes each. The timer serves both: it times the 48 minutes and leaves the form to you and your sangh.
What it does not do
It does not recite or display any sutra, and it does not replace your sangh’s way of taking and releasing the vow. The phone is among the things set aside during samayik, so start the timer, put the phone face down and leave it. Nothing you do here is sent to us: the timer and the count are kept in this browser on this device, and clearing the browser’s data removes them.
Frequently asked questions
↳ How long is a samayik?
One muhurta, 48 minutes: two ghadis of 24 minutes each. Our samayik page explains why the vow takes that length.
↳ Will the timer ring if my screen turns off?
The tool asks the browser to keep the screen awake while the timer runs. Most phones allow that; if yours does not, the page may pause when the screen sleeps and the chime can come late, so the end time is shown for you to check.
↳ Can I time two or three samayik in a row?
Yes. Choose the number before you start: the timer runs 96 or 144 minutes and shows when each samayik ends. Each completed one is counted.
↳ What if I close the page by mistake?
Open it again on the same phone and browser: a samayik in progress carries on from its start time, and one that ended while the page was closed is counted once.
↳ Is my count sent anywhere?
No. The count is kept in this browser on this device only. It does not move to another phone, and clearing the browser's data removes it.
Sources. The 48-minute samayik and the three daily periods of the samayika stage: Natubhai Shah, Jainism: The World of Conquerors, chapter 4.11, p. 210, and chapter 5.3, p. 258. The muhurta of two ghadis, the Karemi Bhante and the Shvetambara and Digambara forms: our samayik page and its sources. Corrections are seva: tell us.