in 1902, chidambaranar published a book called "cenkonraraiccelavu", claiming that he had 'discovered' the manuscript from "some old cudgan leaves". the book was presented as a lost-and-found work of the first sangam at tenmadurai. the author of the poem was styled as mutaluli centan taniyur ("chentan who lived in taniyur before the first deluge"). the work talked about the exploits of an antediluvian tamil king sengon, who ruled the now-submerged kingdom of peruvalanatu, the region between the rivers kumari and pahruli. according to chidambaranar, sengon was a native of olinadu, which was located south of the equator; the king maintained several battleships and conquered lands as far as tibet. in 1950s, "cenkonraraiccelavu" was declared as a forgery by s. vaiyapuri pillai. however, this did not stop the tamil revivalists from invoking the text. the 1981 documentary funded by government of tamil nadu declared it as the "world's first travelogue".