Introduction

INTRODUCTION This book began as an attempt at reqsiy, the Que- This journey required a study of the life and chua word meaning “to know a place or a peo- infl uence of Topa Inca (Thupa ‘Inka), one of the ple.”1 In particular, the goal of the project was to most formidable Inca rulers, who played a criti- become familiar with the Inca estate of Chinchero cal role in shaping the landscape of Chinchero (in and the landscape in which it was embedded.2 As life and in death). Also of importance are those the project moved forward, it led to an examina- who lived in or visited the royal estate, as well as tion of Chinchero’s creation, its dynamic use as the various individuals and groups who played a private residence and state center, its role in a a part in drastically altering Chinchero’s urban complicated battle over succession, its transfor- fabric after the Spanish invasion. While we can- mation into a royal memorial and prison, and fi - not fully “know” Chinchero and the people who nally its desecration and subsequent reconstitu- built, lived, and altered it, the journey of trying tion as a Spanish colonial town. Growing as such to know provides critical insights into a dynamic endeavors do, this desire to become acquainted and complex architectural center and the defi ant with Chinchero unfolded into the much greater and diverse individuals who shaped and experi- journey to knowing the place and its people in enced it. more profound ways. NNair_5472-final.indbair_5472-final.indb 1 44/13/15/13/15 99:22:22 PMPM Topa Inca and the Written Records his mind about the imperial succession and des- ignate Topa Inca as his heir, having him replace Much of what we know about Topa Inca and Chin- a brother, Amaru Topa, who had previously been chero comes from colonial-period sources such as appointed as legatee (the Inca did not practice pri- Spanish conquistadors and church administra- mogeniture). By incorporating extensive and di- tors. In these writings, Topa Inca’s life is remem- verse new lands that stretched across the western bered in fragments.3 His adult name was Topa Inca rim of South America, Topa Inca came to rule one Yupanqui. He was born into privilege in the early of the largest empires of the early modern world. fi fteenth century, the son of a powerful sapa inca He lived a long life and, sometime in the late fi f- (ruler) named Pachacuti Inca Yupanqui and his teenth century, built a royal estate at Chinchero. principal wife, Anahuarque, a woman from the town of Choco, located near the capital of Cuzco.4 Topa Inca had many siblings, perhaps as many as Chinchero and the Written Records three hundred, via his father’s offi cial and unoffi - cial sexual liaisons. Little is known of Topa Inca’s Inca rulers built lavish estates to serve as pri- childhood, other than a reference that he may vate retreats, temporary capitals, and memorials have spent his formative years living in the sacred to their rule. Some sapa inca built more than one. complex known as the Coricancha (“Golden Enclo- Pachacuti had two estates in the Urubamba Val- sure”) in Cuzco. ley (Pisac and Ollantaytambo) and another at Ma- When Topa Inca was a young man, he married chu Picchu. Topa Inca had a side valley that spread a relative. Whether she was a full or half sister (or up a canyon and covered part of the plains above. perhaps even a cousin) is unclear, but it appears Here his principal wife, Mama Ocllo, had lands he married her because of his father’s wishes. Al- and Topa Inca built Urcos (today called Urqui- though incestuous marriages are often associ- llos).5 Toward the end of his reign, Topa Inca or- ated with the sapa inca, only the last two imperial dered a new residence be built for him in a canyon Inca rulers (Topa Inca and his son Huayna Capac above Urcos (Urquillos), on the edge of the Pampa [Wayna Qhapaq]) appear to have married close de Anta plains. This retreat was called Chinchero, relatives. Mama Ocllo became Topa Inca’s princi- which aptly described its location in two ways. It pal wife. She was a powerful consort and bore him was within the region of Chinchasuyu (Chin) and several children. Like his father, Topa Inca also was built upon the side of a hill (chiru means “on took on secondary wives and multiple mistresses, a side”). The written records describe Chin chero’s though not in the same quantity as Pachacuti. construction, with Topa Inca gathering his noble- One of Topa Inca’s favorites was a woman named men together at the site and ordering them to Mama Chequi Ocllo, with whom he had at least build an impressive royal retreat. one son. According to colonial writers, Topa Inca lived Knowledge of Topa Inca as an adult is derived in Chinchero for several years. It appears that he mainly from accounts of his success on the bat- spent that time with his favorite secondary wife, tlefi eld. The colonial writers devoted considerable Mama Chequi Ocllo, and their son Capac Huari time to the details of his many conquests, which (Qhapaq Wari). As his father had done before him, was no small feat, given that Topa Inca spent most Topa Inca changed his preference for successor, of his adult life away in battle. Along with his fa- from Huayna Capac (son of his principal wife and ther and several of his brothers, Topa Inca was in- close relative Mama Ocllo) to Capac Huari. Some- strumental in expanding the Inca Empire, which time in the late fi fteenth century, Topa Inca died was called Tahuantinsuyu, or “Land of the Four at Chinchero. His death led to a succession dis- Quarters.” It is these military victories that seem pute between two sons, Huayna Capac and Ca- to have prompted his father, Pachacuti, to change pac Huari, which lasted two years. Huayna Ca- 2 Introduction NNair_5472-final.indbair_5472-final.indb 2 44/13/15/13/15 99:22:22 PMPM pac emerged the victor, putting to death his eventually executed in 1532 (one of the fi rst fi rm stepmother Chequi Ocllo and banishing his half dates we have for the Inca). In retaliation for their brother Capac Huari to exile in Chinchero. What support of his half brother, Atahualpa killed many happened afterward is met with silence in the co- of Topa Inca’s panaca, the very people who would lonial writings. We have no references to the royal have tended to the buildings and lands of Chin- estate for the next several decades. chero and who would have brought Topa Inca’s Fortunately, the colonial sources have much to mummy to the royal estate to be sung to and say about Inca estates in general, including what feted. Topa Inca’s mallqui was burned, an act con- happened to them after the death of the royal pa- sidered horrifi c and shocking to the indigenous tron. When an Inca ruler died, the sapa inca was population. The onslaught of European diseases “not at the end of his career but at the beginning and the subsequent confl agration of the sapa inca of candidacy for ancestral greatness.”6 In the form in the civil war devastated the lavish royal estate of a mallqui (mallki, ancestor mummy), Inca rulers of Chinchero and its royal patron. were consulted on important matters and were Devastated, but did not destroy. Written rec- feasted and venerated. They also continued to ords indicate that Topa Inca’s huauque (wawqi), or travel, participate in ceremonies, and own prop- brother statue, endured and his ashes were se- erties, which they visited with their retinue of cretly collected and venerated once more. His servants.7 Thus, even after death, Chinchero was form changed, yet again, but his essence re- likely the royal sanctuary of the great leader Topa mained. A few of his descendants survived Ata- Inca. Here his mallqui would have been served fi ne hualpa’s purge and the Spanish invasion. Most foods and drinks and venerated with great fan- were very young, one of whom was the daughter fare. When he was not in residence, his family of Capac Huari. Scattered across the Urubamba (panaca) would have tended the grounds. Certainly Valley, the Pampa de Anta, and Cuzco, these rem- life at Chinchero would have been altered by the nants of Topa Inca’s panaca laid claim to the for- confi nement of Capac Huari within its borders. mer ruler’s possessions, such as the royal estate However, in many ways the royal estate would not of Chinchero and its surrounding lands. But they have been so different from when Topa Inca was were not alone. References from church books and alive. state orders indicate that ownership of these ar- But Chinchero changed dramatically when Eu- eas was deeply contested and fl uid. Authorities, ropeans arrived in the Americas. Their diseases both secular and religious, vied for rights to lands raced across the continent, decimating indige- and labor, resulting in a deeply entangled and of- nous populations. One of these diseases infected ten shifting web of indigenous and European play- Huayna Capac and killed the Inca ruler quickly. His ers. Somehow during this time, Chinchero trans- death, along with that of his intended heir, created formed from an Inca royal estate into a settled a vacuum in leadership. According to the writ- colonial town. ten sources, two remaining sons (the half brothers Atahualpa and Huascar) began a war over succession, which, in addition to European diseases, Architecture, History, Knowledge wiped out half the population in Tahuantinsuyu, if not more.

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