Markandaya maharishi who had obtained the boon of eternity from lord Shiva had a son named Bavanna rishi, who was born with the grace of lord vishnu . Bavanna rishi was born destined to create cloth to the world.

When the time had come the great Markandaya maharishi asked his son to start the work of weaving cloths which was destined to him by God even before he was born. To achieve his destiny he asked his son to meet the trimurties – Vishnu, Shiva & Brahma, for they would give him the mantras that would enable him to weave the cloths. Markandaya maharishi blesses Bavanna rishi with strength and teaches him the mantras to reach the abodes of the trimurties with ease. With the blessings of his father and a strong desire to fullfill the purpose of his birth Bavanna rishi sets to meet the trimurthies.

He first reaches Vaikuntam the abode of lord Vishnu. Bavanna rishi is bemused by the beauty of Vaikuntam and he touches the feet of lord vishnu for his blessings.lord vishnu says that the people on earth do not have proper clothes and so asks bavanna rishi to dedicate his life to manufacturing clothes. Since he was born for that very purpose he would be successful in it.

Lord Vishnu takes three strings out of the stem of his lotus and gives it to the maharishi and tells him to chant the thantu mantra 101 times on an auspicious day. Then the strings would transform into materials for weaving a cloth. Then he blesses him and asks him to go to lord shiva to learn the mantras which would convert these materials into fine threads.

Bavanna rishi satisfied at sucessfully achievieng his first goal sets to go to kailash the abode of lord shiva. On reaching kailash he first takes the blessings of lord Shiva. Then the lord allready knowing the purpose of Bavanna’s visit teaches him the mantras which will create fine threads from the materials he would get from the tanthu mantra, which was given by Vishnu.then shiva asks bavanna rishi to go and meet Brahma who would give him the required materials to set up the loom.

Then Bavanna rishi reaches Satyalokam the abode of lord Brahma and seeks his blessings. Brahma blesses him and gives him the parts like shuttle, spindle, etc that are required to set up a loom. Then Brahma blesses Bavanna and says now it is upto him to use his skills and weave different types of cloth materials and serve mankind.

Then as advised by the trimurthies bavanna rishi waits for an auspicious day and place the strings taken from the stem of the lotus given to him by lord vishnu on a golden plate and utters the thantu mantra taught to him by lord vishnu 101 times . Immediately one of the strings transforms itself into silk and starts flowing from the plate. The other string turns into cotton and the third string transforms into jari made of gold. Now with the materials Bavanna rishi chants the mantras taught to him by lord Shiva and fine threads emerge from the materials which he had obtained from the lotus strings.

Then Bavanna rishi sets up the loom and installes the raw materials into the loom and starts weaving materials out of it. The first saree woven by the rishi was given to Mahalaksmi wife of lord Vishnu.

Then Bavanna rishi was married and had 101 children. All of them devoted their life to weaving cloths for the mankind. Since the raw materials were obtained from the stem of a lotus the descendents were called as Padma saleeyars. Padma means lotus and saleeyars means weavers.

Till date the descendents of bavanna rishi known to the world as Padma saleeyars have dedicated themselves to the art of weaving sarees and they are considersd as some of the finest weavers in the country.

Thus the destiny of Bavanna rishi is being fullfilled by his descendents, who have created a globally known brand called Kumaran silks. Since Padma saleeyars wove the saree to mahalakshmi itself , the sarees woven by padma saleeyars are considered divine and are prefered to be worn on all auspicious occacions such as marraiges, betrothals , gruhapraveshams etc…