He was born on 1 August 1920, in Wategaon village, part of present-day Maharashtra's Sangli district, to a family that belonged to the Matang caste.

Annabhau Sathe was posthumously conferred with D.Litt degree by Mahatma Gandhi Memorial University (MGMU) Chhatrapati Sambhaji Nagar on 27 November 2022.

In spite of having no formal scholastic training, Sathe wrote 35 novels in the Marathi language.They include Fakira (1959), which was in its 19th edition and received a state government award in 1961.

It is a novel which tells the story of the protagonist; a stout young guy, named Fakira, his feat, his crusading for the rights of people of his community in the British Raj and his enmity towards the evil forces in the village.

Besides novels and short stories, Sathe wrote a play, a travelogue on Russia, 12 screenplays, and 10 ballads in the Marathi powada style.

[1] Sathe's use of folkloric narrative styles like powada and Spiritual Songs helped popularise and make his work accessible to many communities.

[14] Political parties, such as the Indian National Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party-Shiv Sena alliance, have attempted to appropriate his image as a means of drawing electoral support from the Mangs.