Khanda
The Two Sovereignties
The present design appears by December 1905, worn by a young Nihang photographed at Amritsar; its designer is unknown.
Sikh Museum (sikhmuseum.com), Nishan Sahib exhibit, 20th Century: The Modern Design
Sikh emblem: a double-edged khanda sword inside a chakkar quoit, between two crossed kirpans.
More context
Three elements compose the Khanda. At the centre is the double-edged sword that names it, the type of blade used to stir the amrit at the founding of the Khalsa in 1699. Around it sits the chakkar, a steel throwing quoit, its circle standing for a God without beginning or end. The two outer kirpans are Miri and Piri, temporal and spiritual authority, recalling the two swords Guru Hargobind took up in 1606. The parts are old; the combination is not, settling into its present form in the first decade of the twentieth century. Unicode encoded it in 1993 at U+262C as ADI SHAKTI, a name from outside mainstream Sikh usage, and added a second character named KHANDA at U+1FAAF in 2022.
Light
Mīrī and pīrī joined: devotion and worldly duty as one obligation, with the Khalsa's charge to protect the defenceless.
Shadow
Worn as a badge of identity apart from the discipline it stands for; outsiders can misread its blades as belligerence.