Although #Atahualpa was the last ruler of the #Inca Empire or #Tahuantinsuyo as a result of his victory in the civil war that faced him with his brother the emperor #Huascar, in fact he broke the tradition of the imperial succession. He is usually represented wearing the “mascaipacha”, a braided cord like a crown, but he never wore it because it was not imposed on him in #Cusco by Willaq Umu, the high priest of the Empire. 

The mascaipacha was the only symbol of power that granted the Sapa Inca the titles of Governor of Cusco and Inca of Tahuantinsuyo (the latter from Pachacútec), as a crown. Its creation is attributed to the Inca Sinchi Roca. From then on, the following rulers adopted this coronation ritual with the imperial tassel. Emperors such as Huascar, Huayna Cápac and Tupac Inca Yupanqui respected and adopted this custom. 

The tradition was interrupted with Atahualpa, who was not the first in the line of succession nor had he been born within any of the Cusco’s royal panacas, whose members he ordered to be tortured and executed. He also ordered that the quipucamayoc of Cusco were killed and the quipus were burned to erase them from the memory of Huascar and rewrite the history of the empire.

📸 Atahualpa Inca XIV. Series of portraits of the Incas (Cusco, ca. 1850-1875). Oil on canvas. National Museum of Archaeology, Anthropology and History of Peru, Lima.
#Atahualpa #Inca #Tahuantinsuyo #Huascar