A guide to the Sati series
With four books from the bestselling Sati series on the shelves, and a fifth just out this year, here’s everything you need to know about Koral Dasgupta’s books, from the order to read them in, to what the final installment is about.
In the Sati series, Koral Dasgupta explores the lives of the Pancha Kanyas from the Hindu epics and reinvents them with a feminist consciousness.
What are the books about?
Unrelated to each other in their stories, characters, and plot, the books in the Sati series strive to bring to the forefront the extraordinary lives of all the Pancha Kanyas: Ahalya, Kunti, Draupadi, Mandodari, and Tara.
Should you read the books in order?
While the books can be read as standalone novels, they are best enjoyed in sequence. If you don’t know where to start, the books are listed below.
What is the latest book in the Sati series?
The epic story of Tara, the vanar queen from the Ramayan, in which human and animal destinies intertwine in a clash of courage and kinship.
Tara
by Koral Dasgupta
'Tara's nuanced narrative is bathed in grace and empathy' NAMITA GOKHALE
'A powerful depiction' AMISH
'Exuberant and imaginative' ARUNDHATHI SUBRAMANIAM
The Sati Series in order:
The first book in the series, Ahalya hinges on questions about her truth, narrating the course of her life, from innocence to infidelity.
Ahalya
by Koral Dasgupta
‘A magical and thought-provoking adventure, Ahalya will intrigue and mesmerize readers’ CHITRA BANERJEE DIVAKARUNI
‘An enigmatic tale about purity, chastity, seduction and redemption’ NAMITA GOKHALE
‘Brilliant and intriguing’ ANAND NEELAKANTAN
'Koral Dasgupta gives voice, character, and agency to an enigmatic and fascinating female figure from ancient Hindu lore' PHILIP LUTGENDORF
Kunti is a brilliant and tender retelling of a story at the heart of our culture and mythology about a rare matriarch in the Mahabharat and one of the revered Pancha Satis.
Kunti
by Koral Dasgupta
‘Koral Dasgupta writes with verve, emotion and passion ... [Kunti] is a must for those wishing to know about our past and the dialectics of gender within it’ PAVAN K. VARMA
Draupadi, the third book in the Sati series, is bold, intimate and immersive. In an epic filled with fiery men, it explores the fire-born queen’s true dreams and desires.
Draupadi
by Koral Dasgupta
‘Ahalya, Draupadi, Kunti, Tara, Mandodari – each of the Pancha Kanyas is fascinating ... Koral Dasgupta’s wonderful retelling adds to this corpus, with a lyrical and poetic quality’ BIBEK DEBROY
Mandodari is the untold story of the queen of Lanka, torn between two conflicting ideologies – Ram Rajya and Ravan Raj.
Mandodari
by Koral Dasgupta
‘Imaginative, intense and insightful … After Ahalya, Kunti and Draupadi, Koral Dasgupta brings us Mandodari, the fourth of the Pancha Kanyas in the Sati series. Narrated in Koral’s signature style, the exchanges of Mandodari and Sita (and their implications for Ravan and Ram) are absolutely fascinating.’ Ashwin Sanghi
About the author of the Sati Series:
Koral Dasgupta has published an eclectic range of books, from academic non-fiction to relationship dramas. Her books are discussed in the context of gender studies, art, myth, and ecocritical literature. The books in the Sati series have been nominated for various prestigious awards, with Ahalya most recently being recommended for the 2023 Sahitya Akademi Prize Honour List.