Tap, austerity, is kept one vow at a time, and many people like to keep a quiet record of it. Choose the day and the vow you kept, add it, and the tracker shows the year’s totals for each vow, the days you recorded and your runs of consecutive upvas, named as the tradition names them. The record stays on your phone: nothing is sent to us.
How it works
The vows. The list follows the vows as Natubhai Shah defines them in Jainism: The World of Conquerors (chapter 4.13, pp. 221 and 222) and our page on Paryushan fasting sets them out:
- Navkarsi: no food or water until 48 minutes after sunrise.
- Porsi: no food or water until one prahar, a quarter of the daylight, after sunrise.
- Biyasana: food on two occasions in the day, seated.
- Ekasana: food once in the day, in one sitting.
- Ayambil: one bland meal of boiled grain and pulse, without salt, oil, ghee, milk, curd, sugar, fruit, green vegetable or spice.
- Upvas, tivihar: no food for the day, with boiled water in daylight.
- Upvas, chauvihar: no food and no water.
Record the main vow of the day. Recording the same day again replaces it.
Runs of upvas. Consecutive days of upvas, tivihar or chauvihar, make a run, and Shah gives the names: chhath for two days, attham for three, atthai for eight and maskhaman for thirty. A run across the end of a month or a year is counted as one; we checked runs over the end of February, over a leap day and over the new year.
Your record. Everything is kept in this browser on this device. “Copy my record as text” puts the whole record on your clipboard, so you can keep it in a note or send it to yourself.
Reading the result
The first line gives the number of days recorded in the year, how many were upvas, and your longest run of upvas. The cards count each vow. Below them are your runs of upvas and every day you recorded, newest first, each with a button to remove it. If you have records from other years, a button for each year shows that year.
Where traditions differ
The vow names are those of Shvetambara Murtipujak and Sthanakvasi practice, which our Paryushan fasting page reports. Digambara practice uses a different vocabulary centred on proshadhopavasa, and commonly keeps upvas without water: record such a day as chauvihar upvas. How a vow is taken, and what counts as kept, is for you and your sangh; the tracker only records what you enter.
What it does not do
It does not tell you which vow to keep or check that a day was kept. It gives no health advice: if you take regular medicine, are pregnant, or have a condition such as diabetes, ask your doctor before a fast, as our Paryushan fasting page says. It does not plan a varshitap or an Oli; see Ayambil Oli dates and Akshaya Tritiya and varshitap. The record does not move to another phone, and clearing the browser’s data removes it, so copy it from time to time.
Frequently asked questions
↳ What is the difference between tivihar and chauvihar upvas?
Both are a day without food. In tivihar upvas boiled water may be drunk in daylight; in chauvihar upvas nothing is taken, not even water. Shah defines both, and the tracker counts them separately and together.
↳ What are chhath, attham and atthai?
Runs of consecutive upvas: two days, three days and eight days. Maskhaman is thirty. The tracker names a run when your recorded days make one.
↳ Can I record two vows on one day?
The tracker keeps one main vow a day, so record the one that defines the day, such as upvas or ekasana. Recording the day again replaces what was there.
↳ Is my record private?
Yes. It is kept in this browser on this device and is not sent to us. It also does not move to another phone, so copy it as text if you want to keep it safe.
↳ Can I add a day I missed?
Yes. Choose that date, choose the vow and add it. The totals and runs update at once.
Sources. The vows and the names of the runs of upvas: Natubhai Shah, Jainism: The World of Conquerors, chapter 4.13, "Austerities", pp. 221 and 222. Porsi as one prahar after sunrise, the Digambara differences and the health notes: our Paryushan fasting page and its sources. Corrections are seva: tell us.