Ayambil Oli is the fullest expression of the observance, and understanding what it worships explains why the fast is arranged around exactly nine days twice a year rather than any other number. The festival honours the Navpad, nine categories of veneration central to Jain devotion, arranged in a specific sequence: the five supreme beings, beginning with the arihants, liberated souls still embodied and teaching, and the siddhas, fully liberated souls, followed by the acharya, upadhyaya and sadhu, the teacher, preceptor and ordinary monastic ranks of the community, and then four qualities of right conduct and understanding that round out the set to nine, with one pad, one member of the set, given particular devotional attention on each of the nine days of the festival.
Participants observe ayambil on each of the nine days while attending specific devotional recitations and worship connected to that day's particular pad, so the fast and the object of worship are timed together deliberately rather than the nine-day length being an arbitrary round number attached to an otherwise unrelated dietary practice. Community-run ayambil shalas, kitchens dedicated to preparing the permitted plain, unflavoured food for anyone keeping the observance, see their heaviest use of the year during Oli, since the twice-yearly festival draws participation from Jains who do not keep ayambil at other times, making the kitchens' capacity during these two windows a genuine logistical undertaking for the communities that run them rather than a minor convenience.