Ancient Cuzco

by Brian S. Bauer

  After the Spanish Conquest and the fall of the panaca system in Cuzco, a series of legal battles developed over the control of the former kings’ estates. For example, by the early 1550s multiple disputes had arisen concerning the rights to various fields in the Yucay Valley. These included some of the finest maize-growing lands in the Andes, which, prior to the conquest, had been held by the panacas of Huayna Capac and Topa Inca Yupanqui (Villanueva 1971).

  Most early colonial accounts of the royal mummies emphasize the fact that, as in life, these elite individuals had limited contact with the lower classes, except during the large ceremonies that were held in the center of Cuzco. It was during these rituals that the mummies were placed in the central plaza for all to see. Ceremonies involving the Inca mummies did not, however, last long after the Spaniards arrived in the imperial city. Yet there was a brief period of time, between when the Spaniards first entered Cuzco (November 1533) and when they consolidated their control after the siege (May 1536), that the royal mummy cults were practiced in the open. Thus, a few eyewitness descriptions of the mummies during this period are critical to review, since they provide details of how the ancestor cults functioned in the final moments of the empire.

  When the Spanish forces first reached Cuzco, they were unaccustomed to the fact that its deceased kings played a central role in Inca society or that the dead held influence over the actions of the living. The importance of the mummy cults in everyday life in Cuzco was made clear to Pedro Pizarro as he accompanied a native captain who wished to marry a woman from one of the noble houses. Pedro Pizarro believed that he was requesting permission from one of the woman’s living guardians. But to his surprise, Pedro Pizarro found himself in an audience with one of the dead rulers of Cuzco. He writes:

  I came to understand this when we first entered Cuzco for the first time . . . and just before setting out a captain of Mango Inca’s who was to go with him came to the Marquis to ask him to send and ask it of one of these dead men that a relative of his who was in his service be given to him [the captain] for wife. The Marquis sent me [with orders to] go with Don Martin, the interpreter, to speak to this dead man and ask on his [Pizarro’s] behalf that the Indian woman be given to this captain. Then I, who believed that I was going to speak to some living Indian, was taken to a bundle, [like] those of these dead folk, which was seated in a litter, which held him and on one side was the Indian spokesman who spoke for him, and on the other was the Indian woman, both sitting close to the dead man. Then, when we were arrived before the dead one, the interpreter gave the message, and being thus for a short while in suspense and in silence, the Indian man looked at the Indian woman (as I understand it, to find out her wish). Then, after having been thus as I relate it for some time, both the Indians replied to me that it was the will of the Lord the dead one that she go, and so the captain already mentioned carried off the Indian woman, since the Apoo, for thus they called the Marquis, wished it. (Pedro Pizarro 1921: 204–205 [1571])17

  It is clear from this early description that each mummy had an oracle: an individual who spoke for and received things on behalf of the dead king. In this case, the oracle did not enter into a trance or become possessed in any way, but instead simply sat quietly beside the mummy bundle and spoke for it. Pedro Pizarro repeats this information elsewhere in his chronicle where he describes the busy day-to-day activities of the dead kings:

  Each dead man had allotted to him an important Indian, and likewise an Indian woman, and whatever these wanted they declared it to be the will of the dead one. Whenever they wished to eat, to drink, they said that the dead ones wished to do that same thing. If they wished to go and divert themselves in the houses of other dead folk, they said the same, for it was customary for the dead to visit one another, and they held great dances and orgies, and sometimes they went to the house of the living, and sometimes the living came to them. (Pedro Pizarro 1921: 203 [1571])18

  Molina, in his description of the major rituals of Cuzco, also provides an account of the dead kings being taken into the plaza and served their favorite foods and drink. Molina (1989: 111 [ca. 1575]) emphasizes that the kings from Hanan Cuzco were placed on one side of the plaza and the kings from Hurin Cuzco were placed on the other:

  For this festival they took to the square all the said huacas [shrines] and the bodies of the dead Inca Lords and Ladies, to drink with them, placing those who had been Lords of Hanan Cuzco in it, and those of Hurin Cuzco in their place. Thus they brought food and drink to the dead as though they were living, saying, “When you were alive you used to eat and drink this: may your soul now receive and eat it wherever you may be.”19 (Translation by author)

  Cieza de Leon, who interviewed many of the original conquistadors in Cuzco, provides a similar account of the royal mummies in the plaza. He clearly indicates that the mummies of the royal Inca were brought out for viewing in the plaza during the coronation of Manco Inca (December 1533), shortly after Pizarro and his men arrived in Cuzco:

  To this end they made a statue in the form they chose to give it, which they called by the name of the dead Inca. These statues were set up in the square of Cuzco when they held their celebrations, and around each statue of these Incas their wives and servants gathered, and they all came, setting out their food and drink there, for the devil probably spoke to them through those statues, as they were used for this purpose. Each statue had its buffoons, or jesters, who amused the people with merry words, and all the treasure the Inca had possessed when he was alive was in the custody of his servants and kinfolk, and was brought forth on such occasions with great display. In addition to this, they had their chararas [fields], which is the name they give their plantations, where they raised corn and other victuals to maintain the wives and all the other members of the family of these lords who had statues and memorials, even though they were already dead. And beyond doubt it was this custom that was in large part responsible for the vast treasures beheld by our own eyes in this kingdom. I have heard from Spanish conquistadors that when they were discovering the provinces of the kingdom, these statues still existed in Cuzco, which would seem to be true, for when shortly afterwards Manco Inca Yupanqui [son of Huayna Capac] aspired to the royal fringe, they were brought out into the square of Cuzco before the Spaniards and Indians who were there at the time. (Cieza de León 1976: 189 [1554: Pt. 2, Bk. 11])20

  Betanzos also provides a vivid description of the care of the mummies by a large number of retainers and of the songs that they would sing:

  He [Pachacuti Inca Yupanqui] picked out and named a certain number of yanaconas and mamaconas to serve these statues and gave them land on which to sow and harvest for the services of these statues. He also designated much livestock for the sacrifices that were to be made to the statues. These servants, lands, and livestock were given out to each one of the statues for itself. He ordered that great care be taken to give food and drink to these statues every evening and morning and to make sacrifices to them. For this purpose, he had a steward put in charge of the servants he had designated for each one of the statues. He also ordered each one of these stewards to make up songs which the mamaconas and yanaconas would sing in praise of the deeds of each one of these lords in his day. These songs were ordinarily to be sung by the servants of those statues whenever there were fiestas starting first with the song, story, and praise of Manco Capac, and these mamaconas and servants would sing about each lord as they had succeeded one another up to that time. And that was the order that was followed from then on. Thus they preserved the memory of them and their times. . . . When Inca Yupanque had these statues put on the benches, he ordered that, on their heads, there be placed some diadems with very attractive feathers. Gold earplugs were hanging from the diadems. After this was in place, he ordered that some gold disks also be placed on the foreheads of each one of the statues. The mamacona women were always to have in their hands some long red feathers attached to some rods. With these they were to shoo away any flies that might light on the s
tatues. The service articles for these statues were to be kept very clean, and every time the mamacona women and yanacona servants appeared before these statues to serve or revere them, or others, whoever they might be, they came very clean and well dressed. With cleanliness, reverence, and obeisance they appeared before these statues. (Betanzos 1996: 79–80 [1557: Pt. 1, Ch. 17])21

  In sum, the mummified kings played a number of important roles within the imperial capital. On one level, they served to legitimate the current king. During the large public ceremonies of Cuzco, the ruling Inca was physically seen as the direct descendant of the long line of divine leaders that had been assembled in the plaza and that stretched back into the mythical times of the first Inca, Manco Capac (Bauer 1996). The mummies and their oracles also served the king in an advisory capacity. The ruling Inca was expected to seek advice from the ancestors on issues of importance, and it was carefully observed which oracles provided sound advice and which did not. The most trusted mummies and their spokespersons were also used as ambassadors for the Inca. For example, a rebellion in Ecuador was averted when Huayna Capac sent an image of his mother, Mama Ocllo, and its accompanying female Cañari oracle to negotiate with the rebel leaders (Cabello de Valboa 1951: 374 [1586: Pt. 3, Ch. 22]; Murúa 1962: 92 [ca. 1615: Ch. 34]).

  Furthermore, the mummies provided a way for the noble houses of Cuzco to actively influence and gain power in the internal affairs of the state without directly or publicly challenging the divine ruler. In the words of Peter Gose (1996: 16), “Through the voice of their mummified ancestors, these groups could assert their own perspective and interest without questioning the nominally absolute power of the current sovereign.” It was not, however, unusual for the panacas to become embroiled in the politics of the day. Their power and wealth could rise or fall as a result of these actions. For example, in one case, a contender to the kingship is said to have had his mother marry the mummy of one of the dead kings so that he would be seen as a more legitimate candidate (Santa Cruz Pachacuti Yamqui Salcamayhua 1950 [ca. 1613]). The decimation of Topa Inca Yupanqui’s bloodline provides another illustrative case. Atahualpa’s generals burned the mummy of Topa Inca Yupanqui and killed many of his descendants because they had openly sided with Huascar during the civil war. It was a mistake from which the panaca never recovered.

  Representations of the Inca Kings and Their Huauques and Bultos

  Closely related to the concept that dead rulers could continue to hold influence over the living through their mummies was the ruling Inca’s practice of creating statues that could represent him at times of need. These figures were called huauques (brothers) of the Inca king.22 Using information gathered from Polo de Ondegardo’s 1559 investigation of the Inca mummies, Sarmiento de Gamboa describes two of these “brothers.”23 Within the account of the life of Sinchi Roca, the second Inca, Sarmiento de Gamboa (1906: 44 [1572: Ch. 15]) writes:

  [Sinchi Roca] left a stone idol in the form of a fish, call Huanachiri Amaru, that was in his life his huauque idol. This idol was found with the body of Sinchi Roca among some copper bars by the lawyer Polo [de Ondegardo], who was then the Chief Magistrate of Cuzco, in the town of Bimbilla [Wimpillay]. The idol had servants and cultivable lands for its service.24 (Translation by author)

  Within Sarmiento de Gamboa’s (1906: 94 [1572: Ch. 48]) discussion of Pachacuti Inca Yupanqui’s reign, we find this description of his huauque:

  The lawyer Polo [de Ondegardo] found the body of this Inca in Totocachi, where the Parish of San Blas of the city of Cuzco is now, well adorned and guarded, and he sent it to Lima by order of the Marquis of Cañete, the viceroy of this kingdom. The huauque idol of this Inca was called Inti Illapa. It was very large and of gold. It was carried in pieces to Cajamarca. The said lawyer Polo found the house, estates, servants, and women of this huauque idol.25 (Translation by author)

  Cobo provides the most detailed description of the brother-idols and the various roles that they held. Although long, it is worth quoting at length, since it is no doubt based on information gained from the now lost 1559 work of Polo de Ondegardo:

  During their lifetimes, all of the kings and lords of the Inca class were in the habit of each making a statue that depicted its owner, and with a certain solemnity and ceremonies they would take the statue for their brother, calling it guauque, which means brother. Some made the statue large; others made it small; still others made it the same size and shape as themselves. Some of the statues were made of gold, others of silver, wood, stone, or other materials. The kings gave their guauques a house and servants. They also assigned some farmland to support those who were in charge of each statue. From the day that they made their guauques their brothers, the Inca kings would order the people, especially those of their lineage and family unit, to treat the guauques with the same reverence as the king himself. These idols were greatly venerated during the lifetime of the lords whom they represented. After the death of the lords, the idols were kept with their bodies, and both the bodies and the idols were always respected and served equally. The idols were kept very well dressed, and during the less solemn festivals, when the occasion did not warrant bringing out the bodies of the lords, their guauques or images were brought out. This custom was so ancient that if it was not a fabrication of theirs, it must date from the time of their earliest recollections. Although initially it was only the practice of the kings and great lords, as time passed the custom was extended so much that any important man might have a guauque. During his lifetime he would have a statue made or designate a stone or idol, made of whatever material struck his fancy, and he would take it for his guauque. He would order the members of his family to treat the guauque as if it were him during his lifetime, and after his death his family was to continue to venerate the guauque in the same way. As a result, before long there were a great number of these idols in Cuzco and the surrounding area. And there would have been many more if it had not been for the custom of the majority to forsake the less important ones; the people would forget these after a time. However, the guauques of the Inca kings lasted up to the arrival of the Spaniards, and at that time the guauques were venerated as much as when this practice started. This veneration was so great that in all their times of need, the descendants of the deceased’s family unit would entrust themselves to these guauques, and these idols were carried by the armies with all of the authority that they could muster because they thought that this was a great help to them in their victories and that it made the enemies fearful. At least, there is no doubt that the warriors felt very confident about their success with the patronage of the guauques, and according to what the elders say, this patronage fired the imagination of the warriors. The sacrifices made to these statues of the guauques were noteworthy and extensive, and the people thought that as long as these guauques endured, they had the same powers as the bodies of their owners when they were still alive. During the time when they had them in the city the guauques were placed in the company of the bodies, and whenever the kinship units and families carried them, they honored the guauques as much as when their owner was alive. Thus they contributed offerings to the people who looked after the guauques. (Cobo 1990: 37–38 [1653: Bk. 13, Ch. 9])26

  From these passages, we learn that the huauques of the Inca kings, like so many of the important shrines of the empire, had estates and attendants to help maintain them.27 It seems, however, that “brothers” of the Inca were “retired” at the end of the king’s life and kept with the mummy. Thus, as Polo de Ondegardo systematically hunted down and found the dead kings of Cuzco, he also found their huauques at their sides (Table 12.1).

  Other early writers of Peru also describe bultos (bundles) that represented and spoke for the Inca. The term bultos implies that these figures may have taken a more human form than the huauques, perhaps appearing like the mummy bundles. The bultos were given a special status and were seen to hold intimate connections with a ruler, since they contained bits of his hair or fingernails, or small pieces of his f
lesh.28 Huayna Capac’s bultos were seen by the first Spaniards who visited Cuzco:

  There are other images of plaster or clay which have only the hair and nails which were cut off in life and the clothes that were worn, and these images are as much venerated by those people as if they were their gods. (Sancho 1917: 170 [1534: Ch. 19])29

  TABLE 12.1. The Inca and their huauques

  Not surprisingly, many descriptions are ambiguous, and it is at times unclear if the Spaniards were describing an Inca mummy, a huauque, or a bulto. Nevertheless, several accounts provide detailed descriptions of bultos and the important role they played in the Inca kingdom. For example, the role of the bulto as a physical representation of the Inca king is clearly expressed in Betanzos’s account of Atahualpa’s actions soon after the death of his father.

  With this information and finding himself lord, he [Atahualpa] ordered that a statue be prepared of his own nail clippings and hair, which was a representation of his person. He ordered that this statue be called Incap Guauquin, which means the brother of the Inca.

  Once this statue was completed, he had it placed on a litter and charged one of his servants named Chima with guarding and watching over it. Giving this statue many other young men as servants, he ordered that it be taken and carried on its litter by the messengers to where his captains Chalcochima and Quizquiz were so that the peoples of the subjugated provinces could render obedience to that statue in place of his person. Thus this statue was carried and given to the captains, who received it and were very pleased with it. They performed many and great sacrifices and served and respected this statue as if the very person of Atahualpa were there. (Betanzos 1996: 205 [1557: Pt. 2, Bk. 6]).30