Sheokhanda (श्योखंड) or Shivakhande (शिवाखंडे) Shaukhanda (शौखंडा) or Shokeen (शोकीन) is a gotra of Jats found in India. Shokeen is an Arabicised shorter version of Sheokhand. The gotra gets its name from Shiva.[1] Literally it means the abode of Shiva.
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There is story of this clan migrating from Lahore, Punjab in the 12 century. It was due to the wave of Arab attacks. The migratory Jat families had a first stop at Patiala in Punjab region, then it stopped in Jind(Present day Haryana), few other kept on moving forward to Delhi. There were 8 brothers who settled in Delhi and formed 8 villages there. Some of the rest of migrant went to western Uttar Pradesh/ Harit Pradesh and settled there.
The family records of this gotra/ Clan can be found with pundits in Gadhganga. According to Hukum Singh Panwar(Pauria),this clan is living in about 25 contiguous villages [1] in Jind district of Haryana and about five villages in Nangloi block of Delhi ,rest three villages in delhi are bit scattered. There are couple of villages of this clan in patiala and some in western Uttar Pradesh better known as Harit Pradesh. Of late this gotra has been Arabicised as Shokeen in some Delhi villages, though while marrying they retain their ancestral clan name that is sheokhand. They are identified by some scholars with the Shivis[2] or the Sibis of the Usinara country in the north of Haridwar near the source of Ganges.[3] The Sivas or Sibis Jats became known as Shivakhande or Sheokhande from and after the Shivaliks, the abode of Lord Shiva, the highest deity of the Jats.
There are eight villages (Ath-Gama) of this Gotra in National Territory of Delhi (Sultanpur Majra, Mongol Pur Kalan, Mongolpur Khurd, Peeragarhi, Nangloi Jat, Nilothi, Kamruddin-Nagar, Dichaon Kalan),Roshanpura, Deendarpur, Chhawla and in Haryana near Jind. All the village of Shokeen gotra in delhi falls in outer delhi. Though these village use Shokeen as their surnames but socially they introduce themselves as Sheokhanda, particularly for fixing marriages and in panchayats.There also seems to be a debate among Delhi villages to use their surname as Sheokhanda rather than shokeen but some members of the community are resisting the efforts as they wish to be " different " .
There has been a widespread debate over the fact that sheokhand Jats who were actually known as shivikhande or shivi jats are in fact are Sibi or Sibia Jats. The change in surname from sibi or sivi to shivi and then to shivikhande can be attributed to migration from the native place of Punjab and coming into the Hindi heartland. The change in the name from sibi to sheokhand can been logically proofed as there is similarity in change of surname from sheokhand to shokeen in delhi villages. It also worthy to note that Sibi or Shivi surname is only present in Jats, no other community uses this surname.
The similarity of surname has been identified by many jat scholars in this clan's context. It also gives credit to the widely popular story of the clan's migration from Punjab in 12 century. The records could be found in haridwar in regard to this.
Sibi is the original surname which got changed in sheokhand for the migratory members of this community. Shokeen surname of this clan was adopted in 1950s which is an Arabicised version of sheokhand used only in some Delhi villages (most still use sheokhand as surname or refrain from using any now-days and put only singh, chaudhary or kumar instead).
The change in the surname came into being in 1950s when some young boys wanted to make their names look cool. They found their surname very heavy in pronouncing and came with a suggestion of shokeen name. There is another alternate story of a young boy known as Narian Singh Shokeen from Peera garhi, Delhi . He went to Mumbai to become an actor where he referred his surname as shokeen. He got a chance to act in one movie with Mala Sinha but unfortunately that movie was closed before its completion. Though he was not able to make into movies again but his surname clicked among the youth of the villages and slowly some boys started writing their names as shokeen. Though many village elders tried to change this phenomenon but now days many are writing shokeen as a surname. Though there are few who still use sheokhanda as their surname but for fixing marriages sheokhanda is used.