Khanda
The khanda is the broad, straight, double-edged sword of the Indian subcontinent, heavier and stiffer than the curved tulwar, and it is principally associated with the Sikhs of the Punjab and with the Marathas of western India. In Sikh tradition the khanda is the emblem of the Khalsa, the community of initiated Sikhs, and the central motif of the Nishan Sahib, the tall flag of a gurdwara, which shows a double-edged khanda with a chakkar (discus) and two kirpans arranged around it. The sword was carried as a weapon of war in the 17th and 18th centuries and remains a ceremonial and ritual object