Social status of women is a basic theme in feminism. This article explores the social status of women retrospectively of two ancient societies, Babylonian and Indian, using comparative methodology. The first known written law is of Hammurabi's, and in Indian subcontinent Kautilya's classic text Arthashastra is pioneer in written law books. By analyzing the punishments suggested for women against different crimes, it is argued that both laws, in spite of belonging to different societies and epochs, have similarities about the social position of women. And Hammurabi's law is more emancipatory than Kautilya's although it was written a millennium earlier than that.