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This Indian instrument is the most common accompaniment for renditions of devotional music and chants. It is also the most inexpensive of instruments and anybody with a sense of rhythm can play the Manjeera. The Manjeera consists of two plates or cymbals that are tied together with a cord or a string for the player to hold the Manjeera with both hands and produce a tinkling sound in frontally striking one plate against the other. The cymbals have a depression in the middle and on the outside, the protrusion is where the fingers support the instrument. The plates meet at the edges with each strike and this creates a high-pitched sound from this simple but perfectly tuned instrument. Manjeera is also known as the Tala, Khartal or Kartal depending on the region in which it is played.