[9] The North Indian Kayasthas were powerful components of the upper-bureaucracy and made highly influential urban elites under Hindu kings.

[11] Following Islamic invasions of India, they became some of the first Indian groups to learn Persian regularly[12] and eventually became integrated into an Indo-Muslim governing community[13] gaining hereditary control over the position of Qanungo (transl.

[19] From the eleventh-century onwards, epigraphical texts mention various regional lineages belonging to the North Indian branch of the Kayasthas,[8][11] which were identified with their common occupational specialisation[20] and whose members had become particularly influential in the administration of mediaeval kingdoms.

[22] The earliest epigraphic mention of Chitragupta having any connection with the Chitraguptavanshi Kayasthas appears around the same period from a royal charter (dated 1115 CE) written by a Srivastava feudatory of Govindachandra of Kannauj.

[23][24] Similar epigraphic records mention Mathur feudatory of Udayasimha,[25] and members of other Kayastha branches holding important administrative positions under different mediaeval kingdoms.

[26] Kayasthas, according to Romila Thapar, had become a "powerful component of the upper-bureaucracy" and were on occasion "highly respected as royal biographers" and composers of inscriptions.

[12] Kayasthas were a major demographic block in maktabs (equivalent of primary school) where they acquired skills of copying and writing, which were necessary for working in various Mughal departments.

[30] Thus, Kayasthas became conversant with and literate in wider Perso-Arabic fiscal lexicon[31] and started to fulfil requirements of the Mughal administration as qanungos (transl.

[36] As their participation in Indo-Persian cultural forms grew, so did their interactions with Muslims, and the Kayasthas gradually became loosely integrated into an Indo-Muslim governing community.

[13] The ulama, Muslim aristocracy, and Persian poets, on the other hand, looked down on Kayasthas for wielding influence, labelling them "disloyal, cruel, cheats, and extortionists".

One Muslim commentator noted that the Hindu pensman who spoke Persian was a 'neo-Muslim, but still retained [sic] the smell of kufr [infidelity] and discord in his heart'.

[40] Most Kayasthas remained pragmatic and vocationally oriented towards their Persian language skills,[41] probably with the exception of Munshi Hargopal Tufta (d. 1879), the chief shagird (transl.

Nawal died on the battlefield fighting against Pathans on behalf of Safdar [45][46] Under the reign of Asaf-ud-Daula, the Kayastha Raja Tikait Rai who served as a Diwan (transl.

Dhruvadasa (d. 1643), a Kayastha from Deoband (Uttar Pradesh), whose family served as government servants, is considered one of the Radhavallabh sect's foremost poets.

[56] The most important contribution came from Lalach Kavi, a Kayastha from Raebareli, who in 1530 CE wrote the first ever Hindi vernacular adaptation of the Sanskrit text Bhagavata Purana's "Dasam Skandha".

Kayastha qanungos and scribes proved to be of great help in achieving fiscal consolidation and integration of the region into north Indian administration.

[59] And in this sense, Kayasthas became well-known in the colonial officialdom and it was observed that: Hindoos of the Kyut [Kayastha] caste are always to be preferred for this duty...generally speaking [they] are respectable, well-dressed and intelligent, and carry much weight with them on entering a village, assuming great consequence, and summoning the village authorities to attend with a great deal of parade and show...he never appears without a bearer holding a chattah (umbrella) over his head.

In 1919, at the cusp of Congress's launch of Civil Disobedience, Kayasthas accounted for two-thirds of all Indian Government law members across north India, with most of them in the United Provinces.

In the 1880s, Allan Octavian Hume called[16] for the colonial government to:tax the... Kayasths... who, while growing rich by the pen, oust their betters from their ancestral holdings, and then are too great cowards to wield a sword either to protect their own acquisitions or to aid the Government which has fostered their success.As part of the British divide and rule strategy, in 1901, the Principal of Queens College received a directive from the Commissioner of Benares and its District Collector that candidates for the Collector's office should "belong to castes other than Kayasthas."

[72][73][74] By 1900, the Kayasthas became so dominant as a 'service caste' that "their ability to mould north India's governance led to numerous calls from British officialdom to cut their numbers down".