This states the number of animals tied to the sacrificial posts. We learn from authorities that in an Aśvamedha sacrifice, more than three hundred animals are sacrificed [18]. Sometimes, in place of aśvaratnottamam, aśvaratnottaraḥ is found in some manuscripts. This indicates that the horse was bedecked with jewels [19].

NOTE. In his purport to Bhagavad-gītā 2.31, Śrīla Prabhupāda notes:

“In the religious lawbooks it is stated:

āhaveṣu mitho ‘nyonyaṁ jighāṁsanto mahī-kṣitaḥ
yuddhamānāḥ paraṁ śaktyā svargaṁ yānty aparāṅ-mukhāḥ

yajñeṣu paśavo brahman hanyante satataṁ dvijaiḥ
saṁskṛtāḥ kila mantraiś ca te ‘pi svargam avāpnuvan

“‘In the battlefield, a king or kṣatriya, while fighting another king envious of him, is eligible for achieving the heavenly planets after death, as the brāhmaṇas also attain the heavenly planets by sacrificing animals in the sacrificial fire.’ Therefore, killing on the battlefield on religious principles and killing animals in the sacrificial fire are not at all considered to be acts of violence, because everyone is benefited by the religious principles involved. The animal sacrificed gets a human life immediately without undergoing the gradual evolutionary process from one form to another, and the kṣatriyas killed on the battlefield also attain the heavenly planets, as do the brāhmaṇas who attain them by offering sacrifice.”¹