Inca religion

Overview

Inca religion was the state religion of Tawantinsuyu, the Inca empire centred on Cuzco in the Peruvian Andes, from the 15th century until the Spanish conquest of 1532–72. It combined animism, ancestor veneration and the worship of nature gods under a state sun cult: Inti the sun was the divine ancestor of the ruling dynasty, honoured alongside the creator god Viracocha, the earth mother Pachamama, and countless local huacas, sacred places, objects or mummies. The emperor ruled as the Sun's living descendant, and priests ran sacrifice, divination and confession across a network of temples radiating from Cuzco's Coricancha. The conquest and a Spanish campaign against "idolatry" dismantled the state cult, but Quechua-speaking Andean communities today still blend Catholicism with reverence for Pachamama and local huacas.^{[1–2, 4–5, 8–10]}

History

Origins at Cuzco 12th–14th century

By Inca tradition, their ancestors emerged from Paqari-tampu near Cuzco under the founder Manco Cápac, who led them to found the city, Tawantinsuyu's future capital, around 1200. For generations the Inca differed little from other small Andean societies; according to Spanish-era chronicles, they had no system of writing and left their early history to memory rather than record.^{[7, 11]}

Pachacuti and the state sun cult 1438–1493

Pachacuti Inca Yupanqui became emperor in 1438 after organizing Cuzco's defence against the invading Chanca and winning a decisive victory over them; he then rebuilt Cuzco and went on to conquer south to Lake Titicaca and far to the north. Subject peoples had to honour the sun and serve the state, but their own local gods and huacas were generally tolerated rather than suppressed.^[12–13]

Spanish conquest 1532–1533

A bitter succession war between the half-brothers Huáscar and Atahualpa, based respectively at Cuzco and Quito, had weakened the empire and was close to being settled in Atahualpa's favour when Francisco Pizarro's small Spanish force, fewer than 200 men, reached Cajamarca in 1532. The Spanish captured Atahualpa there and executed him in 1533, then took Cuzco and began a campaign against Inca religious institutions, destroying temples and idols as "idolatry."^[14–15]

Suppression and continuity 1533–present

A remnant Inca state held out at Vilcabamba until 1572. Despite the dismantling of the state cult and official campaigns against native worship, rural Andean communities kept some practices alive in secret through the colonial period. Today, Quechua-speaking Andean communities remain a major part of Peru's population, and their religion is generally Roman Catholicism combined with the older hierarchy of spirits and deities.^{[9, 16]}

Key moments

1. c. 1450 CEMachu Picchu and the Inca gods · Andes, Peru

Beliefs

Inti

The sun god, held to be the divine ancestor of the ruling Inca dynasty; the emperor's title drew legitimacy from being called a child of the sun, and farmers prized Inti's warmth for ripening crops.^{[5, 10]}

Viracocha

The creator god and culture hero, credited with shaping the earth, humans and animals, destroying and remaking peoples, and teaching skills before departing westward.^[17]

huaca

A sacred place, object, or ancestor, which could be a mountain, spring, stone, bridge or mummy bundle; huacas were bound up with local identity, since families and communities traced descent from their own huaca, and travellers left small stone offerings at sacred passes.^{[4, 18]}

Practice

State sun cult at the Coricancha

Priests and the Chosen Women served at temples such as Cuzco's Coricancha, the empire's chief shrine, where communion rites with the sun helped bind the empire's many peoples to Cuzco.^{[3, 8]}

Sacrifice

Llamas, guinea pigs, coca leaves and chicha, a corn beer, were offered on ordinary occasions, but human sacrifice, including of children, marked extreme crises such as famine or a new ruler's accession; sacrificial victims were required to be physically unblemished, and many were drawn from conquered provinces as a form of tribute.^[19]

Divination and confession

Priests called umu practised divination before any important decision, reading the lungs of sacrificed llamas, watching spiders or coca leaves, or consulting oracles housed at huacas; ritual error, hocha, had to be confessed and atoned for, since the Inca believed unconfessed wrongdoing could bring drought or disaster on the community.^[20]

People

Scripture

El primer nueva corónica y buen gobierno

completed c. 1615

An illustrated chronicle by the Andean nobleman Felipe Guamán Poma de Ayala, addressed to the Spanish king, describing Inca government, the religious calendar and festivals in detail; translated in abridgement as Letter to a King, it is a key source precisely because it was written by someone raised within Andean tradition.^[21]

Comentarios Reales de los Incas

published 1609–1617

A history by Garcilaso de la Vega, son of an Inca noblewoman and a Spanish captain, drawing on his mother's teaching and Inca oral tradition to describe Inca religion and government for a European readership; later readers have found its idealised, almost utopian picture of Inca rule as telling as its facts.^[22]

Places

Coricancha, Cuzco

PER · UNESCO World Heritage, 1983

The "Golden Enclosure," chief temple of the Inca state religion, dedicated to Viracocha and Inti and once sheathed in gold and silver; after the conquest the Spanish built the church of Santo Domingo over its foundations, which are still visible today.^{[3, 23]}

Machu Picchu

PER · UNESCO World Heritage, 1983

A royal estate and religious, ceremonial and astronomical centre built in the 15th century, probably under Pachacuti, high in the Andes; abandoned after the Spanish conquest and unknown outside Peru until its rediscovery in 1911.^[24]

Art & objects

Public-domain objects from museum collections. Select one to see it at the museum.

Female FigurinePeru, 1450–1532Offering Vessel in the Form of an AlpacaCuzco, 1450–1532Paccha Representing a Woman Carrying a Vessel and Nursing a ChildPeruvian North Coast, 1200–1450Inka Khipu (Fiber Recording Device)Peru, Inca Period, 15th-16th Century, c. 1400–1532Seated FigurinePeru, Inca, 15th-16th century, c. 1400–1540Alpaca Offering Container (Canopa)Peru, Inka style (1400-1532), 1400–1532Miniature male effigyInca, 1400–1535 CEMiniature female effigyInca, 1400–1535 CEMiniature camelid effigyInca, 1400–1535 CEFunerary staffInca, 1400–1535 CEFunerary staffInca, 1400–1535 CEKero (beaker)Inca, 1400–1535 CEPaccha (ritual vessel)Inca, 1400–1535 CEVotive checkerboard tunicInca, 1460–1626

How we know

No writing, and chroniclers' bias

The Inca, like other Andean cultures, left no system of writing; their knotted-cord quipu recorded numbers and accounts, not narrative. Almost everything known about Inca religion was written down after the conquest by Spanish or mixed-heritage chroniclers working from oral tradition and official Spanish investigations ordered in 1549 and the 1570s, so modern historians treat each account's distance from events, and its author's own agenda, as part of the evidence.^{[7, 25]}

Archaeology and the chroniclers compared

Standing remains help test the chronicles: the Coricancha's foundations beneath Cuzco's Santo Domingo church and the ruins of Machu Picchu confirm the scale and religious function described by Spanish-era writers, while ongoing excavation continues to refine or correct details the chroniclers could not have known or recorded accurately.^[23–24]

Common misconceptions

Glossary

Inti

The Inca sun god, held to be the divine ancestor of the ruling dynasty and head of the state pantheon.^[10]

Viracocha

The Inca and pre-Inca creator god and culture hero, credited with shaping humanity and the world.^[17]

Pachamama

The earth mother, still widely honoured in Andean communities today alongside Catholic worship.^{[2, 9]}

huaca

A sacred place, object or ancestor, such as a mountain, spring, stone or mummy bundle, bound up with local and family identity.^[4]

quipu · khipu

A device of knotted and coloured cords used by Inca officials to record numbers and accounts; it did not record narrative text.^[25]

Sapa Inca

The title of the Inca emperor, understood as a living descendant of the sun god Inti.^[5]

ayllu

A basic Andean social and landholding unit, whose members' ritual conduct was believed to affect the group's wellbeing.^[20]