Arshia Sattar holds a PhD in South Asian Languages and Civilizations from the University of Chicago. Her translations from Sanskrit, Tales from the Kathasaritsagara and The Ramayana of Valmiki, have been published by Penguin Books. She has also written two books for children, Kishkindha Tails, Pampa Sutra, Adventures with Hanuman and the Ramayana for Children. Her other works on the epic include Lost Loves: Exploring Rama’s Anguish (Penguin India, 2011), the edited volume The Best of Quest (Westland Books, 2011), and Uttara: The Book Answers (Penguin India, 2016). Her other translations from Sanskrit include a collection of stories about money titled 'The Mouse Merchant'. She co-founded the Sangam House international writers’ residency programme in 2008.

Sattar has also worked with documentary film and theatre. Her book reviews and articles appeared regularly in The Times of India, The Illustrated Weekly of India and the Indian Review of Books. She was previously the programming director at OpenSpace, an NGO committed to promoting awareness of issues such as globalization. She taught Indian Studies at the Mahindra United World College of India in Pune for five years and has been a visiting lecturer at Middlebury College, teaching courses on Indian cinema and cultural politics. She was the program director for the Rangashankara theater festival in Bengaluru (2005). She also sometimes lectures at the National Institute of Design, Ahmedabad, India, and the Srishti School of Art Design and Technology, Bangalore, India where she gives a week-long class on Indian narrative.