Many people wonder if the unicorn motif is an actual unicorn or it represents 2 horns but only single horn is rendered due to parallax. It is indeed two horns as we can see in seals M-232 and M-233, its the same animal with saddle, cult object/soma filter.
So is the animal a deer or bull? Is the neck region depicting folds in the skin or a mane? The depiction of a mane is very clear in the following: they did have a horse like animal however, no cult objects in these seals.
Are the stripes representing a tiger? No, tigers clearly have stripes all over, like this spectacular seal M-287
Interestingly tigers and rhino are fed from troughs just like buffalo... this indicates that they were captured possibly for Ashwamedha sacrifice
Elephants are zebu are not fed from a trough indicating that they roam freely and are part of the civilization.
Symbols that speak to your soul survive.... the 3-headed tiger eventually became the 4-headed lion of Asoka and Indian state
I personally like this the best: Two horses protected by the अश्वत्थ tree (ashwa + tha = horse protector) symbolizing the ashwini twins with 7 leaves (representing the 7 horses of the sun?)
Composite animals are popular too ...
The horned figure is yajamana of ashwamedha. The inscription reads आशसन मान refers to the cutting up of the sacrificed animals
Yajamana of ashwamedha wears horns youtube.com
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