the cheema tribe was called "shaka" in india, from the name saka used by the persians. from the time of the mahabharata wars (1500-500 bc) shakas were mentioned many times in texts like the puranas, the manusmriti, the ramayana, the mahabharata, the mahabhasiya of patanjali, the brhat samhita of vraha mihira, the kavyamimamsa, the brihat-katha-manjari, the katha-saritsagara, and many other old texts. it is believed that there are three royal families of jatt in every punjab. in indian punjab, there are the (cheema, grewal, and gill) "sikh jatts" and the royal families of the pakistani punjab are (chattha, cheema, and warraich) "muslim jutts".