The procession of elephants at the temple festival is accompanied by ritual drummers and other musicians playing a various instruments.
Temple festivals in Kerala are a very noisy affair, with frenzied drumming known as chenda melam. The assembly of musical instruments includes a number of wind instruments, such as the C-shaped brass trumpet (called the kombu), which emphasize and prolong the drumming.
After parading around for hours, the musicians finally follow the elephants into the temple.