Nishan Sahibਨਿਸ਼ਾਨ ਸਾਹਿਬ

The Nishan Sahib is the Sikh flag: a triangular pennant bearing the Khanda emblem, flown on a tall flagpole outside gurdwaras all over the world. Its name means the respected or exalted ensign, and for Sikhs it is far more than a marker. It announces that this is a place of worship open to everyone, where a traveller can find shelter, food and help, and it carries the values of the faith: one God, equality, service and readiness to stand for truth.

What is the Nishan Sahib?

Nishan comes from a Persian word meaning a flag or standard, and Sahib is an Arabic honorific meaning lord or master, used here as a mark of respect, so Nishan Sahib is the exalted ensign or holy flag. A synonymous name is Jhanda Sahib, from jhanda, a banner. The flag itself is triangular, its two equal sides about double the length of the short side, made of cotton or silk cloth with a tassel at its end, and no size is laid down for it. It flies from a tall pole set in the gurdwara compound or on the building itself, and the pole is wrapped in a cloth sheath, called a chola, of the same colour as the flag. At the very top of the pole sits a steel Khanda. Because the flag stands so high, a Sikh place of worship can be recognised from far away, which was its first practical purpose: to guide pilgrims and travellers to the Guru's door. Sikhs hold that a building without a Nishan Sahib outside it is not fully a gurdwara, and the daily Ardas itself remembers the Sikh standards, praying that the jhande, the flags, flourish forever.

What does the Khanda on the flag mean?

The emblem printed or embroidered on the flag, and repeated in steel at the top of the pole, is the Khanda, the central symbol of the Sikh faith. At its centre stands a double-edged sword, also called a khanda, which SikhiWiki explains as the creative power of God and sovereign power over life and death: one edge stands for divine justice, the other for freedom and authority governed by moral and spiritual values. Around the sword is a circle, the chakkar, with no beginning and no end, standing for the oneness and eternity of God and the unity of justice and humanity. Flanking the circle are two curved swords, the kirpans of Miri Piri: the left sword for Piri, spiritual sovereignty, and the right sword for Miri, temporal sovereignty and worldly responsibility, held in balance around the centre. Some flags carry the Ik Onkar symbol instead of, or alongside, the Khanda. Read as a whole, the flag states the same teaching as the two swords of Guru Hargobind Ji: spiritual life and worldly duty, balanced in one emblem, flying over every gurdwara.

Where did the Nishan Sahib come from?

The earliest Sikh flag in the sources is a white one. A verse by Bhatt Kalshar in Guru Granth Sahib Ji, at page 1393, speaks of a white banner, and accounts of the time of Guru Amar Das Ji describe a white triangular flag, the dhaval dhuja, raised at the new Baoli Sahib at Goindwal Sahib on the Beas. In that telling the white stood for Piri, saintliness, goodwill and peace, and the flag served as a landmark for visitors seeking a Sikh place. The Nishan Sahib in its lasting form is traced to Guru Hargobind Ji, who hoisted a flag over the Akal Takht, then called the Akal Bunga, at Amritsar when it was raised in 1606. That flag was called Akal Dhuja, the immortal flag, or Satguru ka Nishan, the standard of the True Guru, and with the sixth Guru the colour changed from white toward the yellow and saffron family, linked in one account with sacrifice after the martyrdom of Guru Arjan Dev Ji. Guru Gobind Singh Ji later added the symbols of deg and tegh, the cauldron and the sword, food for all and justice for all. In the eighteenth century Sikh armies carried the standard at their head in the care of a nishanchi, a flag bearer, and one misl, the Nishanwalia, took its very name from providing flag bearers to the others.

Why are there two Nishan Sahibs at Amritsar?

Between the Harmandir Sahib and the Akal Takht at Amritsar stand two Nishan Sahibs side by side, on poles about 40 metres high, the tallest structures of the complex. They are read as the pair of Guru Hargobind Ji's two swords made visible: one flag for Miri and one for Piri, worldly duty and spiritual authority flying together over the seat where the two meet. Their history is recorded in detail. A flag was first raised on top of the Harmandir Sahib in 1771 by Sardar Jhanda Singh of the Bhangi misl. In 1783 two Udasi mahants brought a tall sal tree in one piece from Dehra Dun to serve as a flagpost beside the Akal Takht, and the hospice next to it took the name Jhanda Bunga, the flag tower. In 1820 Sardar Desa Singh Majithia, who managed Darbar Sahib for Maharaja Ranjit Singh, replaced the wooden post with a steel one covered in gilded copper sheets, and the two posts have flown together ever since, renewed by the SGPC in steel pipe in 1962.

What colour should a Nishan Sahib be?

This is a question Sikhs have actively settled in recent years, and the honest answer has two parts. The Sikh Rehat Maryada, ratified in 1936, states that the Nishan Sahib should be basanti, a xanthic yellow, or surmai, a greyish navy blue. In practice, through the twentieth century, most gurdwaras came to fly a saffron or kesri orange flag, while Nihang gurdwaras kept the dark blue. On 15 July 2024 the Akal Takht decided, in accordance with the Rehat Maryada, that only basanti or surmai are acceptable colours for the Nishan Sahib, and an SGPC circular of 26 July 2024 carried the same instruction to gurdwaras, so many congregations have since changed their flags from saffron to basanti yellow. The Khanda emblem on the cloth is usually in the contrasting colour, blue on a yellow flag or yellow on a blue one.

How is the Nishan Sahib cared for?

Great respect is shown to the flag, and caring for it is a recognised form of seva. The flag is washed with milk and water every year in April at Vaisakhi, when the old cloth is taken down and a fresh flag and chola are hoisted, often in a ceremony led by the Panj Pyare, and the same renewal happens whenever a devotee offers new cloth. Devotees also walk around the base of the pole in reverence. Outside the gurdwara, the Nishan Sahib still travels: at the head of a Nagar Kirtan procession the flag bearers walk in front, traditionally five Nishan Sahibs carried ahead of the palanquin of Guru Granth Sahib Ji, just as the nishanchi once marched at the front of a Sikh army. Wherever it flies, over a great takht or a small diaspora gurdwara, it makes the same promise the first white banner made at Goindwal: the Guru's door is here, and it is open to all.