Inca mythology of the Inca Empire was based on pre-Inca beliefs that can be found in the Huarochirí Manuscript, and in pre-Inca cultures including Chavín, Paracas, Moche, and the Nazca culture. The mythology informed and supported Inca religion.Handbook of Inca Mythology by Paul Richard Steele, Catherine J. Alen
One of the most important figures in pre-Inca Andean beliefs was the creator deity Viracocha. During Inca times, Viracocha remained significant - he was seen as the creator of all things, or the substance from which all things are created, and intimately associated with the sea. According to legend, the founder of the Inca Dynasty in Peru and the Cusco Dynasty at Cusco was Manco Cápac. His history is unclear, especially concerning his rule at Cuzco and his origins. In one story, he was the son of Viracocha. In another, he was raised from the depths of Lake Titicaca by the sun god Inti. Commoners were not allowed to speak the name of Viracocha, which is possibly an explanation for the need for three foundation legends rather than just one.
Inca society was influenced by the local animal populations; both as food, textile, and transport sources, as well as religious and cultural cornerstones. Many myths and legends of the Inca include or are solely about an animal or a mix of animals and their interactions with the gods, humans, and or natural surroundings. Animals were also important in Incan astronomy, with the Milky Way symbolized as a river, with the stars within it being symbolized as animals that the Inca were familiar with in and around this river.
Pre-Inca Andean beliefs Pre-Inca beliefs can be found in the Huarochirí Manuscript, a 17th-century text that records the myths, culture, and beliefs of people in the Huarochirí Province of the Western Andes. Other pre-Inca cultures include Chavín, Paracas, Moche, and the Nazca culture.
One of the most important figures in pre-Inca Andean beliefs is the creator deity Viracocha, who even during Inca times was one of the most important deities in the Inca pantheon and seen as the creator of all things, or the substance from which all things are created, and intimately associated with the sea. In pre-Incan Andean iconography Viracocha takes the form of a Staff God, characterized by front-facing figures holding vertical objects which are referred to as "staffs". As the chief deity, Viracocha was the creator god and served as the primary religious icon of the entire Peruvian Andes, particularly during the Early Horizon (900-200 BC) onwards.
Basic beliefs
Scholarly research demonstrates that Runa (Quechua speakers) belief systems were integrated with their view of the cosmos, especially in regard to the way that the Runa observed the motions of the Milky Way and the Solar System as seen from Cusco, the capital of Tawantinsuyu whose name means "rock of the owl". From this perspective, their stories depict the movements of constellations, planets, and planetary formations, which are all connected to their agricultural cycles. This was especially important for the Runa, as they relied on cyclical agricultural seasons, which were not only connected to annual cycles, but to a much wider cycle of time (every 800 years at a time). This way of keeping time was deployed in order to ensure the cultural transmission of key information, in spite of regime change or social catastrophes.
After the Spanish conquest of Peru by Francisco Pizarro, colonial officials burned the records kept by the Runa. There is currently a theory put forward by Gary Urton that the quipus could have been a binary system capable of recording phonological or logographic data. Still, to date, all that is known is based on what was recorded by priests, from the iconography on Inca pottery and architecture, and from the myths and legends that have survived among the indigenous peoples of the Andes.
Worldview The Andean people (and the Incas) had a dualistic view of the cosmos. They believed that the universe was made up of several worlds, each with its counterpart:
Hawa Pacha: the outside world (what exists but cannot be perceived by our senses). Hanan Pacha: the world above, celestial and supraterrestrial (gods such as the sun, moon, lightning, stars, rainbow, etc.). Hakaq Pacha or Haqay Pacha: (the world beyond or of spirits). Kay Pacha: the world of here and now (humans, animals, plants, etc.). Hurin Pacha: the world below, the underworld (the dead, the unborn, and disease). Uku Pacha: the world within (the world of eternal darkness).
It is believed that the Spanish colonizers simplified this worldview to three levels to fit Christian symbolism.
Inca foundation legends
Manco Cápac was the legendary founder of the Inca Dynasty in Peru and the Cusco Dynasty at Cusco. The legends and history surrounding him are very contradictory, especially those concerning his rule at Cuzco and his origins. In one legend, he was the son of Viracocha. In another, he was brought up from the depths of Lake Titicaca by the sun god Inti. However, commoners were not allowed to speak the name of Viracocha, which is possibly an explanation for the need for three foundation legends rather than just one.
There were also many myths about Manco Cápac and his coming to power. In one myth, Manco Cápac and his brother Pacha Kamaq were sons of the sun god Inti. Manco Cápac was worshiped as the fire and sun god. In another myth, Manco Cápac was sent with Mama Ocllo (others even mention numerous siblings) to Lake Titicaca where they resurfaced and settled on the Isla Del Sol. According to this legend, Manco Cápac and his siblings were sent up to the earth by the sun god and emerged from the cave of Puma Orco at Paqariq Tampu carrying a golden staff called "tapac-yauri". They were instructed to create a Temple of the Sun in the spot where the staff sank into the earth to honor the sun god Inti, their father. During the journey, one of Manco's brothers (Ayar Cachi) was tricked into returning to Puma Urqu and sealed inside or alternatively was turned to ice, because his reckless and cruel behavior angered the tribes that they were attempting to rule. (huaca).
Pedro Sarmiento de Gamboa wrote that there was a hill referred to as Tambotoco, about 33 kilometers from Cuzco, where eight men and women emerged as the original Inca's. The men were Manco Capac, Ayar Auca, Ayar Cachi, and Ayar Uchu. The women were Mama Ocllo, Mama Huaco, Mama Ipacura, and Mama Raua.
In another version of this legend, instead of emerging from a cave in Cuzco, the siblings emerged from the waters of Lake Titicaca. Since this was a later origin myth than that of Pacaritambo it may have been created as a ploy to bring the powerful Aymara tribes into the fold of the Tawantinsuyo.
In the Inca Virachocha legend, Manco Cápac was the son of Inca Viracocha of Paqariq Tampu which is 25 km (16 mi) south of Cuzco. He and his brothers (Ayar Auca, Ayar Cachi, and Ayar Uchu); and sisters (Mama Ocllo, Mama Huaco, Mama Raua, and Mama Cura) lived near Cusco at Paqariq Tampu, and uniting their people and the ten ayllu they encountered in their travels to conquer the tribes of the Cusco Valley. This legend also incorporates the golden staff, which is thought to have been given to Manco Cápac by his father. Accounts vary, but according to some versions of the legend, the young Manco jealously betrayed his older brothers, killed them, and then became Cusco.
Deities
The Incas permitted the cultures they integrated into their empire to keep their individual religions. Some of the various gods worshiped by the peoples of the Incan empire had overlapping responsibilities and domains. These were worshipped by different ayllus or worshipped in particular former states.
Apu (Great lord) was a god or spirit of mountains. All of the important mountains have their own Apu, and some of them receive sacrifices to bring out certain aspects of their being. Some rocks and caves also are credited as having their own apu.Sacred Mountain Expedition: April 2007 Amaru (Sacred serpent) was a serpentine, chimerical or draconic deity associated with wisdom, water, earth, and the underworld. It represented both destructive and benevolent aspects of nature, associated with both earthquakes and the irrigating rivers upon which the Aymara people depended for their harvest. Ataguchu (a.k.a. Atagujo, Ataguju) was a god who assisted in creation myth. The legend says Ataguchu, tired due to the Cosmos loneliness, created some divine beings to be his servants. At the same time, he created Guamansuri and sent him to earth (more precisely, the Huamanchuco province). The province was inhabited by an ethnic group called Guachemines. Guamansuri, as a foreigner, was at service of the group. Guachemines leaders had a sister called Cautaguan, due to her beautifulness, she was confined. However, one day Guamansuri seduced and got Cautaguan pregnant. When the leaders realized their sister was pregnant, they instantly knew Guamansuri was the culprit, so they captured and burned Guamansuri and scattered his ashes. Guamansuri's ashes went up to the sky and stayed there with Ataguchu. The leaders put Cautaguan under strict surveillance and, in a few days, she gave birth to two eggs, and died in childbirth. They took the eggs and put them in a dunghill where two screaming children came out of them. A servant took care of the children, who were named Catequil and Piguerao (in one version, it is stated that Piguerao was born with a weak condition and hence he died shortly after. In another version, he supports his brother in order to defeat the Guachemines). Catequil went to where his mother had died and brought her back to life. She gave him the slings that Guamansuri had left for him, so that he could kill the Guachemines. Catequil killed many Guachemines and expelled from the country those he did not kill. So he went to heaven and informed Ataguchu that the land was already free of the Guachemines and asked him to create the people to inhabit and work it. Ataguchu told him to go to the hill and to the high pasture lands called Guacat, upstream from the actual city of La Parilla de Santa. Once there, both brothers pulled the Indians out of the land using gold and silver tools. Auquis were deities that watched over each populated region. Axomamma (Mother of potatoes) was a goddess of potatoes. Catequil (A.k.a. Apocatequil, Apu Catequil) was the tutelar god of day and good, and the god of thunder and lightning in the northern Peruvian highlands. Catequil and his twin brother Piguerao were born from hatched eggs. It was also believed that Catequil was another name or representation of god Illapa. Cavillace was a virgin goddess who ate a fruit, which was actually the sperm of Coniraya, the moon god and mother of the Coya, who raised the ñusta of the empire. When she gave birth to a son, she demanded that the father step forward. No one did, so she put the baby on the ground and it crawled towards Coniraya. She was ashamed because of Coniraya's low stature among the gods, and ran to the coast of Peru, where she changed herself and her son into rocks. Ch'aska (Morning star; a.k.a. Ch'aska Quyllur or Chasca) was the goddess of dawn, the twilight and dusk, as well as the goddess of beauty, virgin women and the flowers. She was considered as the "Venus star" due to her similarities shared with the Roman goddess Venus as well as her luminosity equated to the homologous planet, which is, after the Sun and the Moon, the brightest celestial object in the night sky. Chaupiñamca is a divinity considered the feminine counterpart of the god Paryaqaqa. Like the latter, Chaupiñamca had five sisters, she being the eldest of all. She's represented as a rigid stone with five wings.