 Most of the austerities and ascetic practices can be traced back to Vardhaman Mahavira, the twenty-fourth "fordmaker" or Tirthankara who practiced 12 years of asceticism before reaching enlightenment.Jain texts such as "Tattvartha Sutra" and "Uttaradhyayana Sutra" discuss ascetic austerities to great lengths and formulations.Six outer and six inner practices are most common, and oft repeated in later Jain texts.