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Varkala Temple Festival Parade Musicians

By , About.com Guide

Local musicians accompany the procession at the Janardhana Swamy Temple festival.

Varkala Temple Festival Parade Musicians

Sharell Cook

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.

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