The Five Ks were given at the Khalsa's founding in 1699 as a uniform: unshorn hair (kesh), a comb (kangha), a steel bracelet (kara), a cotton undergarment (kachera), and a sword (kirpan). The point was visibility — a persecuted community that could not blend in would have to defend itself and each other. The kirpan is the one that keeps meeting modern law, and courts in Canada, Britain, and India have generally accommodated it as a religious article rather than a weapon.