I shot this image at the temple during a festival. The Chenda is mainly played in Hindu temple festivals and as an accompaniment in the religious art forms of Kerala. The Chenda is a cylindrical percussion instrument used widely in Kerala.
Panchari melam, comprising of instruments like chenda, ilathalam, kombu and kuzhal, is performed during virtually every temple festival in central Kerala. Another chenda melam which comes close to Panchari in popularity is Pandi Melam. Other chenda melams include chempata, adanta, anchatanta, chempha, dhruvam, navam, kalpam and ekadasam.
Click on the link to see an interesting image from Flickr by Ranjith Shenoy R: Rhythm of Kerala