An institutional explanation

The World Sikh Organization of Canada explains the nishaan sahib as the triangular flag announcing a gurdwara’s presence. Its FAQ names yellow or orange and blue forms, identifies the khanda emblem and relates the flag to spiritual and temporal freedom and sovereignty. This is a useful statement of religious meaning from a Sikh institution. It is not a dated inventory of every earlier design. When interpreting a historical image, identify the place, object and record before transferring the FAQ’s description to it. A modern explanatory diagram cannot alone date a particular flag or establish the identity of the people carrying it.[1]

A recreated digital model

The Sikh Museum Initiative’s 2020 SMI 14 page describes a pre-1849 Khalsa Army flag with different motifs on its two sides. It distinguishes military banners from religious flags and acknowledges uncertainty about the origins and unit affiliations of this type. Its description includes a solar motif, deity imagery and green silk borders. These recorded features do not settle the disputed unit identification. The page also says its 3D model was recreated with additional elements after a 2017 exhibition. A digital model therefore needs its own production history: do not describe it as an unaltered historical photograph or assume that every model feature is direct evidence from surviving cloth.[2]

Condition and reported capture

The Baggage and Belonging catalogue records standards MNERM 45A and 45B as taken by the 50th Regiment during the First Anglo-Sikh War, 1845–6. Each is described as triangular, possibly silk, red with a gold border and very faded. Keep the material qualification and condition with the colour description. These catalogue entries identify military objects and a reported taking; they do not establish that the standards were gurdwara flags or recover their original regiment from colour alone.[3]

Sources & notes

Source records include access dates and, where known, limits on what was examined. Checks used AI assistance; independent human or specialist review has not been completed.

  1. World Sikh Organization of Canada. What is the flag outside the gurdwara? ↗institutional religious explanation · Source date: publication date not established · Locator: Actual complete FAQ answer: triangular nishaan sahib, colours, identifying function, khanda and spiritual/temporal significance. Accessed 2026-11-02.Actual complete institutional answer read on 2 November 2026. It is cited as this organisation’s explanation, not a chronology of every flag design or a claim that every historical military standard had the same imagery.Return to An institutional explanation, paragraph 1 ↑
  2. Sikh Museum Initiative. Khalsa Army Flag, SMI 14 ↗institutional virtual-object interpretation · Source date: 2020-06-25 · Locator: Actual complete 25 June 2020 post: SMI14 description, uncertain origins, military/religious distinction and recreated 3D-model note. Accessed 2026-11-02.Actual full post read. The 3D model was not operated and no physical flag, auction catalogue or Illustrated London News original was independently examined. Its stated recreation and added elements are preserved. The uncertain unit identification is not settled by the imagery.Return to A recreated digital model, paragraph 1 ↑
  3. National Museums Scotland / Queen’s Own Royal West Kent Regiment Collection. Queen’s Own Royal West Kent Regiment Collection: standards MNERM 45A and 45B ↗institutional provenance survey · Source date: 2020 catalogue · Locator: Actual 14-page Baggage and Belonging Catalogue 2020, PDF pages 13–14 one-based: standard records 45A and 45B. Accessed 2026-11-02.Actual complete relevant catalogue entries read. Material is possibly silk and condition very faded; neither qualification is removed. No research image or original standard was examined.Return to Condition and reported capture, paragraph 1 ↑
Help improve this entry. Suggest a correction with a source.
Record PH-COL-0068 · English edition · human review not performed