The importance of Baisi Pahacha [22 steps] in Sri Jagannath temple

The twenty two (22) steps which connect the Lion’s gate to the 2^nd gate inside the temple have long since been considered an important part of the temple. Though the exact time of its construction is not mentioned anywhere in historical or Puranic texts, legends say that it was built by a king named Bhanudev. After passing through the Lion’s gate of the Sri Jagannath temple, one has to go up these steps and then pass through a 2^nd gate way out to a courtyard from where one can get into the main temple in Sri Jagannath temple. The length of each step is 70 feet, width 6 feet and height 6/7 inches. A stone called Yama shila is engraved into the 3^rd step which the devotees must tread on while ascending the steps [it frees from the reasons to be punished by Yama] but must not touch the stone on the way back, since it takes away the merit of Sri Jagannath darshan.

Numerous holy activities are performed on these steps. It is said that during the car festival several gods, goddesses, demi gods, and other heavenly entities, the souls of the ancestors [near Pitru sila], Chitragupta and folks [near Yama sila] descend upon the steps to witness the pahandi of Lord Jagannath. Annual pinda daan for the ancestors is performed on both the sides of these twenty two (22) steps. The ancestral souls are believed to be satiated by it.

Madan Mohan, the representative idol of Lord Jagannath, offers pinda daan to his dead ancestors [Nanda, Yashoda, Devaki, Vasudeva, Koushalya and Dasharatha] on the dark fortnight in the month of margashira. He also offers pinda daan to king Indradyumna [who had the Sri Jagannath temple built] and queen Gundicha, since they were childless.

On the day of Deepavali, people burn kaunria kathi [a bundle of light sticks] and show it upward to illuminate the path of the ancestral souls {badabadia [elders] daka [call]}.

Believers of Jainism hold these twenty two (22) steps to be a symbolic representation of their twenty two tirthankars. Some say that the steps represent the twenty two kinds of weaknesses and faults in human beings which substantiate the fact that some noble men, saints and vaishnavas took around twenty two years in order to conquer these weaknesses and fault to make themselves eligible for a darshan of Lord Jagannath. So the scholars have named it ‘the steps of self control’.

The small rough stone [the ones used for building houses] on the seventh step is called Preta shila or Pitru shila. People leave Anna Mahaprasad [holy rice of the temple that has been offered to Lord Jagannath] on it that is meant for feeding the ancestors. This is believed to liberate the souls of the deceased.

Whatever might be the thoughts or interpretations behind the twenty two (22) steps, it is the faith in God which eventually counts. A devotee gets a sense of fulfillment, if he trustingly puts on his forehead a speck of dust from the surface of the steps.