Paryushan Parva
what is eaten, and how to hold it
पर्युषण पर्वParyushan Parva
Eight days for Shvetambara Jains, ten for Digambara Jains (Das Lakshana), in Bhadrapada — usually August or September.
SOURCE·Published accounts of Paryushan Parva as commonly observed·customs differ by family, region and sampradaya·REVIEWED JUL 2026
How long Paryushan Parva runs
8–10days
The length of the period; individual fasts within it run from one day to the whole of it. Eight or ten days of the most structured fasting in India. The most varied and most structured fasting tradition covered here. Practice ranges from ekasana — one meal a day — through ayambil, upvas (water only, boiled and taken in daylight hours), to attham of three days and, for a few, atthai of all eight.
As the dataset states it: Eight or ten days, with individual fasts within it lasting from one day to the entire period.
SOURCE·Published vrat traditions + IFCT 2017·Paryushan Parva entry·REVIEWED JUL 2026
What Paryushan Parva is
Paryushan is the central observance of the Jain year, ending in Samvatsari and the asking of forgiveness — Micchami Dukkadam. Its fasting practice is more codified than anything else on this site, with named forms carrying precise rules, and it is undertaken with guidance from sadhus and sadhvis and within a community that knows how to support it.
Two features distinguish Jain fasting practically. First, water when taken is boiled and taken only in daylight hours — chauvihar means nothing after sunset, not even water. Second, the longer forms — attham, atthai and beyond — involve consecutive days without food that go far past anything in the other traditions here, and they are undertaken with community and often medical awareness around them.
Customs vary. Shvetambara and Digambara practice differ, as do the traditions within each. The form of fast a person keeps is decided with guidance, according to capacity, and increasing it without that guidance is not the norm. Nothing on this page should be treated as instruction.
How this entry is drawn, and how the food is counted
- The observance is read from published accounts of Paryushan Parva and written as commonly observed — never as required, never as correct. Where households differ, the entry says they differ.
- The arc above places the observed span between named stations of the day — sunrise, midday, sunset, moonrise — and never between times. Sehri, iftar, moonrise and sunset are local and religiously significant, and this site publishes none of them.
- The length is taken from the range the dataset itself states, as a range. Where the length turns on latitude and season, no duration is printed at all.
- Food energy is per the serving each item is really eaten in, from IFCT 2017 (ICMR–NIN) where the table has the food, and from a named alternative where it does not.
- Every food is reconciled against Atwater factors on each build, and a page that fails to reconcile does not ship.
serving kcal = per-100 g kcal × (serving g ÷ 100) energy check = 4·protein + 4·carbohydrate + 9·fat (±15%, ±20% high-fibre) day shape = observed span, station → station (no clock times, ever)
What is customarily eaten, and what is set aside
Described as commonly observed. Your own family's practice is the one that applies.
Commonly eaten
- In ekasana, one seated meal a day, taken in daylight
- In biyasana, two
- In ayambil, a single bland meal without milk, curd, ghee, oil, sugar, salt or green vegetables
- In upvas, boiled water only, and only during daylight
- Root vegetables — potato, onion, garlic, carrot, radish — are set aside entirely, as are green vegetables on many days
Customarily set aside
- All root vegetables and anything grown underground
- Food and water after sunset — chauvihar
- Green vegetables on specified days
- Meat, fish, eggs, alcohol and honey, as year-round practice
SOURCE·Published accounts of Paryushan Parva·reported, not prescribed; regional practice varies and the variation is the practice·REVIEWED JUL 2026
The food, with the numbers
Foods commonly associated with Paryushan Parva, at the serving each is really eaten in. Every one has its own page with the full breakdown.
| Food | One serving is | Calories | Protein | Carbs |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Plain Water | 1 glass · 250 g | 0 kcal | 0.0 g | 0.0 g |
| പശുവിൻ പാൽ (ഫുൾ ക്രീം) | 1 glass · 200 g | 124 kcal | 6.4 g | 9.0 g |
| Curd (Dahi) | 1 katori · 150 g | 90 kcal | 4.7 g | 4.5 g |
| Banana | 1 medium banana · 100 g | 105 kcal | 1.3 g | 24.0 g |
| Apple | 1 medium apple · 180 g | 112 kcal | 0.5 g | 23.6 g |
| Samak Rice (Barnyard Millet) | 1 katori raw · 80 g | 246 kcal | 5.0 g | 52.4 g |
| Jaggery (Gur) | 1 small piece · 20 g | 77 kcal | 0.1 g | 19.0 g |
One serving of each of these 7 items would come to about 754 kcal — a scale check, not a menu. Paryushan Parva is not a calorie target and this table is not a plan.
What the vrat foods cost, counted per serving rather than per 100 g.
SOURCE·Published vrat traditions + IFCT 2017·per stated serving weight·REVIEWED JUL 2026
How to hold it without wrecking the week
This is the part nobody publishes well. None of it asks you to change the observance — training, sleep and meal timing are the variables you control, and the fast is not.
Training
Multi-day upvas is not compatible with meaningful training, and the tradition itself frames these days around restraint and study rather than physical exertion. Walking is what most people do. Return to training gradually after paran rather than at the previous week's loads — three days without food genuinely reduces work capacity for some days afterwards.
Sleep
Chauvihar — nothing after sunset — means the last intake is early, which most people find improves sleep rather than harming it. The exception is a long upvas, where hunger can disturb the night.
Blood sugar
Multi-day fasts without food are among the highest-risk patterns on this site for anyone on glucose-lowering medication, and Jain communities generally have well-established relationships with doctors who understand the practice. That is the right route: a doctor who knows what attham and atthai actually involve.
Hydration
Where boiled water is permitted, take it in daylight — the daylight restriction means the practical risk is a long dry night, not a dry day. Front-loading fluid in the afternoon before sunset is what experienced practitioners do.
The specific risk with Paryushan Parva
Long consecutive fasts need supervision, and the Jain tradition builds that in through community and guidance. The specific medical risks in multi-day fasting are dehydration, electrolyte disturbance, hypoglycaemia in those on medication, and refeeding problems if a long fast is broken with a very large meal. Paran is traditionally gentle for exactly this reason.
ആരൊക്കെ വ്രതം എടുക്കരുത് · വ്രതവും രക്തത്തിലെ പഞ്ചസാരയും · വ്രതത്തിനിടയിലെ ജലാംശം · Sources
Questions asked about Paryushan Parva
What is chauvihar?
The practice of taking nothing at all — food or water — after sunset until sunrise. It is a defining feature of Jain dietary observance and is kept far more widely than the longer fasts.
What is ayambil?
A single daily meal of bland, boiled food without milk, curd, ghee, oil, sugar, salt, spice or green vegetables. It is kept during Paryushan by some and forms its own nine-day observance twice a year — see the Ayambil Oli page.
Why are root vegetables avoided?
Ahimsa. Uprooting a plant destroys the whole organism and, in Jain understanding, harms the many small lives in the soil around it. It is an ethical principle rather than a dietary one, and it applies year-round in observant households, not only during Paryushan.
SOURCE·Published vrat traditions + IFCT 2017·observance accounts and food composition·REVIEWED JUL 2026
Practices are described as commonly observed; customs differ by family, region, community and sampradaya, and this site is not an authority on any of them. Food values come from the Indian Food Composition Tables 2017 (ICMR–NIN), the older ICMR–NIN tables, USDA FoodData Central, named composition studies and the shared ThaliFacts dataset, reconciled against Atwater factors on every build. Which source applies to which food is listed per food, and every source carries the date it was last checked. General information only — not medical or religious guidance. Fasting is not safe for everyone, particularly during pregnancy or with diabetes or other conditions. Speak to a doctor first.
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