The chroniclers were Spanish authors writing for Spanish
audiences, and Garcilaso de la Vega, while half Indian and the illegitimate
son of an Incan princess, was raised a Catholic (albeit in Cuzco), became
a minor cleric in Spain, and wrote for a Spanish audience in a time
of severe censorship of all publications. The chronicler's reports are
at best glosses of the actual Andean culture and world view. In many
ways they tell us as much about the chronicler's viewpoint as the chronicler
relates about his subject.
The remainder of this article is my translation of Garcilaso
Inca de la Vega's Comentarios Reales de los Incas. His account
is perhaps the best and certainly the most extensive, if not a comprehensive
account, of the original festival. As can be seen, while the Raimi had
a religious component, it was essentially a great festival, with many
days of drinking, music and dancing.
"Of the four festivals which the Inca
kings celebrated in the city of Cuzco, which was another Rome, the most
solemn was the festival of the Sun in the month of June, which they
called Inti Raimi, meaning the solemn resurrection of the Sun. They
called it Raimi, which means the same.... they celebrated it when the
solstice of June happened.
"They celebrated this festival to the sun in recognition
for having the Sun and to adore the sun as the highest, only and universal
God, which with its light and power creates and sustains all things
on the Earth.
"And also in recognition for being the natural father
of the first Inca couple Manco Capac and Coya Mama Oclla Huaco and
for all the kings and their children and descendants, sent to the
Earth for the universal benefit of the people, for these reasons the
people held this festival as the most solemn.
"There were to be found at the festival the principal
retired military captains and those not occupied with the militia,
and all the governors, persons of vassalage, from the entire empire;
not because they were obligated to attend, rather because they took
pleasure to find themselves in the solemnity of such a great festival,
which, embracing the adoration of the Sun and the veneration of the
Inca, their king, no one missed who could attend. And when the governors
could not attend due to old age or infirmity or due to pressing business
in service to the king, or because of the great distance, they sent
their sons and brothers, accompanied by their most noble relatives,
that they be present at the festival in their names. The Inca would
be found at the festival in person, unless impeded by war or on a
royal visit.
"The Inca performed the most important ceremonies
as highest priest, which, although there always was a high priest
of the same blood, because he was not a brother or uncle of the Inca,
among the legitimate offspring of the same father and mother, in this
festival, being particular to the Sun, the Inca himself performed
the ceremonies, as first-born son of the Sun to whom principally fell
responsibility to solemnize this festival.
"The governors came with all their best court dress
and inventions that there could be: some brought costumes covered
in gold and silver, and wreaths of the same on their heads upon their
headdresses.
"Others came more or less as Hercules is depicted,
dresses in skin of lions. Others came in the manner in which angels
are depicted, with large wings of a bird called a condor.... Others
brought masks made of wood and depicting the most abominable figures
that could exist, and they are called yuncas. They entered the festival
making gestures and grimaces of fools, dunces and simpletons. For
which they brought in their hands appropriate instruments, like flutes,
poorly harmonized tambourines, pieces of skins, with which they were
helped in making their foolishness.
"Other governors came with different contrivances
in their heraldry. Each nation brought the arms with which they fought
in wars; some brought bows and arrows, others lances, darts, spears,
clubs, slings, and hatchets with short handles for fighting with one
hand, and others long handles axes for fighting with two hands.
"They brought painted the great deeds which in the
service of the Sun and the Inca they had accomplished; they brought
large kettle-drums and trumpets, and many ministers who played them;
in sum, every nation came as well driven and accompanied as they could,
each endeavoring as much as possible to surpass their neighbors, those
of their region and, if they could, everyone.
"They generally prepared themselves for the Festival
of the Sun with rigorous fasting, such that in three days they only
ate a little uncooked white corn and some herbs called chúcam
and water. In this time they did not light fires in all the city and
they did not sleep with their women.
"The fast having past, on the night before the festival
the Incan clergymen took charge of getting the sacrificial animals
and other food and drink which they had to offer to the Sun ready
for the sacrifice. All of which was provided knowing the people had
come to the festival, because the offerings had to suffice to feed
all the nations, not only for the governors and the ambassadors, but
also for the relatives, subjects and servants of all of them.
"The women of the Sun spent that night by preparing
a large quantity of cornmeal called zancu; they made round bread,
the size of a common apple, and it is proper to state that those Indians
never ate their grain kneaded and made into bread except during that
festival and during another called Citua...
"Chapter XXI -- Having foreseen the necessary, on
the following day, which was the day of the festival, at dawn the
Inca with his entire kinship group came out, who went out in order,
according to the age and dignity of each, to the main plaza of the
city, which they called Haucaipata. There they waited for sunrise
and they were all barefoot and very attentive, looking east, and when
the Sun became visible they all took a squatting position (which among
those Indians is the same as to kneel down) to adore it, and with
open arms and hands raised and directed towards its countenance, giving
kisses to the air (which is the same as kissing the fabric of royalty
out of reverence) they adored it with greatest affection and recognition
of having it for their God and natural father.
"The governors, because they were not of royal blood
were in another plaza, to the side of the main plaza, which they call
Cusipata; they made the same adoration to the Sun as the Incas. Later
the king rose to his feet, while the others continued squatting, and
taking two large gold cups, which they call aquilla, filled with beverage
which they drank. He did this ceremony, as progenitor, in the name
of his father, the Sun, and with the vase in the right hand invited
the Sun to drink, which is what the Sun ought to do, inviting the
Inca and all his relatives, because inviting each other to drinking
was the major and most ordinary demonstration which they had of goodwill
for superiors and inferiors and of friendship of one friend with another.
"With the invitation to drink made, he spilled the
glass in his right hand, which was dedicated to the Sun, into a large,
wide-mouth gold jar, and from the jar it flowed from a spout into
a rock hewn channel which flowed from the plaza towards the Temple
of the Sun, since it was the Sun who had to drink it. And from the
other vase in the left hand, the Inca drank a sip, which was his part,
and after that he shared the rest with the other Incas, giving to
each one a little in a tiny gold or silver cup which they had prepared
to receive it.... Of this drink all those of royal blood drank, each
one a sip. To the other governors, who were in the other plaza, they
gave the same beverage which the women of the Sun had made, but not
the sanctified beverage, which was only for the Incas.
"With that ceremony concluded, which was like an opening
volley of what later they had to drink, they all went, in their order,
to the House of the Sun, and two hundred steps before arriving at
the door they all took off their shoes, except the King, who did not
take off his shoes until the very door of the Temple. The Inca and
his relatives entered within, as natural children, and they made their
adoration to the image of the Sun. The governors, as unworthy of such
a high place because they were not children, stayed outside, in a
great plaza which today is in front of the door of the cathedral.
"The Inca offered from his own hand the gold cups
in which they had made the ceremony; the remainder of the Incas gave
their cups to the Inca priests who were nominated and dedicated to
the service of the Sun, because those who were not clergy, although
of the same blood as the Sun, were not permitted to act as priests.
The priests, having offered the cups of the Incas, exited the door
to receive the cups of the governors, which approached according to
the antiquity of their having been in the empire, and they gave their
cups, and other things of gold and silver which they had brought from
their lands to present to the Sun, such as sheep, camelids, alligators,
toads, snakes, foxes, tigers and lions and many varieties of birds;
lastly, of that which they had in greatest abundance in their provinces,
all imitating nature in gold and silver, although each thing in small
quantities.
"Finishing their offerings, they returned to their
plazas in their order; later the Inca priests came, with a large quantity
of camelids, barren females and males of all colors, like the horses
of Spain. All these animals belonged to the Sun. They took a black
llama, because that color was preferred to the other colors for the
sacrifices.
"This first sacrifice of a black llama was for the
prognosticators and auguries of the festival. Because in all things
that they did of importance, for peace as much as for war, they almost
always sacrificed a llama, to look and affirm from the heart and lungs
if it was acceptable to the Sun...
"Chapter XXII -- Returning to the solemnity of the
solstice festival, we can say that if the sacrifice of the llama did
not seem prosperous to the augur they did another, and if that was
not satisfactory another, and if that result was unhappy, they did
not relinquish having the festival, rather it was with sadness and
weeping inside, saying that the Sun, their father, was irritated with
them for some fault or carelessness, which, without taking notice,
they must have committed in the Sun's service.
"They would fear cruel wars, sterility of the fruits,
death of their livestock, and other similar harm. However, when the
augur prognosticated happiness, the pleasure their festival brought
them was great, for the hope of good things to come.
"Having done the sacrifice they brought a great quantity
of camelids for the general sacrifice, and they did not do these like
the first, opening them alive, instead they simply beheaded and flayed,
collecting the blood and the hearts of them all and offered it to
the Sun, as they did from the first llama, burning it all until it
turned to ash.
"The fire for that sacrifice had to be a new fire,
given by the hand of the Sun, as they say. For which they took a large
bracelet, which they called chipana (similar to others which the Incas
usually wore on their left wrists), and which the highest priest had;
it was large, larger than the common ones; it has as a medallion a
concave cup, the size of a half orange, and very polished; the faced
it to the Sun, and at a certain point, where the rays of the cup departed
together, they placed a little very teased cotton, because they didn't
know how to make touchwood, which lights in a short time, because
it is a natural thing. With that fire given in that way, by the hand
of the Sun, they burnt the sacrifice and roasted the meat on that
day. And they carried the fire to the Sun temple and the house of
the virgins, where they maintained it all year, and it was a bad omen
for them for the fire to go out on the eve of the festival which is
when they got ready everything necessary for the sacrifice the following
day; when there was no sunlight to start the new fire, they started
it with two round sticks, thin like a small finger and a half yard
long, drilling one against the other; the sticks are the color of
cinnamon; they call this way of making fire and the fire making u´yaca,
which in the same word serves as noun and verb....
"They roasted all the meat of that sacrifice in public,
in the two plazas, and they divided it with all who were there in
the festival, in the same manner Incas, governors and the rest of
the common people, by their order of rank. And to one and all they
served it with the bread called zancu; and this was the first meal
of their great festival and solemn banquet. Later they brought a large
variety of delicacies, which they ate without drinking while eating,
because it was the universal custom of the Indians of Perú
to not drink while eating.
"Of that which we have said it may have arisen that
which some Spaniards have wished to confirm, that the Incas communicated
with their vassals like the Christians. That which transpired between
them we have fully stated....
"After the banquet they brought out drinks in the
greatest quantities, that being one of the most notable bad habits
which those Indians had, even though today, for the mercifulness of
God and by the good example in this respect which the Spaniards gave
them, today there is no Indian who gets drunk, to the contrary they
abhor and decry it as a great disgrace, such that if in all their
vices they were to be examples, they would be examples of apostolic
preachers of the Evangelist.
"Chapter XXIII -- They toasted each other and with
what order. -- The Inca, seated on his massive golden chair, placed
next to a great golden table, they called upon their relatives named
Hanan Cuzco and Hurin Cuzco in order that in his name they would toast
the most noted Indians that there were from the other nations. They
first invited to the generals who had shown valor in war, who were,
although they were not persons with vassals, given preference by the
governors; except that if the governor, together with being a person
with vassals, had been a general in warfare, he was honored for one
title and for the other. Next, in second place, the Inca invited to
drink the governors of the region around Cuzco, those being all those
whom the first Inca, Manco Capac, had converted to his service; who,
for which great privilege the first Inca had given them the name Incas,
they were held and esteemed in the highest grade, after the Incas
of royal blood, and given preference over all the other nations, because
those Kings would never imagine diminishing, in part or all together,
privilege or other favor which in common or particularly their ancestors
had given their vassals, on the contrary they continued to reconfirm
and augment them little by little.
"For this toasting which they made to each other,
it is understood that those Indians generally, (each proportionately)
had and today have their cups for drinking matched, in twos: that
is to say large or small, they were to be of the same size, of the
same making, of the same metal, of gold or silver, or of wood. And
they did this because there ought to be equality in the amount they
drank. He who invited to drink carried the two cups in his hands,
and if the invited was of lower rank, he was offered the cup in the
left hand, and if of greater or equal rank the one in the right, with
more or less courtesy, according to the rank and quality of the one
and the other, and then they drank equally, and having had his cup
returned he returned to his place, and always in similar festivals
the first to invite was the greater to the lesser, in proof of the
favor and mercy which the superior had towards the inferior. When
later the inferior invited the superior to toast, it was in recognition
of his vassalage and servitude.
"In keeping with this common custom, the Inca toasted
first his vassals in the order we have described, giving preference
in each nation to the generals over those who were not. The Incas
that carried the drinks said to the invited, "The Inca invites you
to drink, and I come in his name to drink with you." The general or
governor, would take the cup with great reverence and raise his eyes
to the Sun, giving thanks as if he did not deserve the favor his son
was showing him, and having drunk he returned the cup to the Inca,
without saying a word except that with gestures and demonstrations
of adoration with arms and lips, sending kisses.
"And it is proper to state that the Inca did not invite
all the governors in general (although to all the generals yes) to
drink, only to some in particular, those seen as the best vassals,
more friends of the common good; because that was what they toasted,
equally the Inca, the governors, and the ministers of peace and of
war. The other governors were invited to drink by the other Incas,
who carried cups in their own names, and not in the name of the Inca,
which sufficed to them and they held it as well said because it was
from an Inca, son of the Sun, just as was his King.
"The first round of toasts having been made, within
a short time the generals and governors of all nations turned to inviting
in the same order in which they had been toasted, those who had been
to the Inca himself, and the others to the other Incas, each to the
other who had toasted him. To the Inca they arrived without speaking,
only with the adoration we have described. He received them with great
affability and having drunk the cups they gave him, and because he
could not, nor was it lawful to drink all the drinks, he undertook
to bring all of them to his mouth; from some he drank a little, drinking
a little from some and more from others, in conformity with the favor
he cared to demonstrate to their owners, according to the merit and
quality of each. And to the educated who entered if any, who were
all Incas by privilege, they were sent to drink for the Inca with
the generals and governors; who, having drunk, returned their cups.
"Those cups, because the Great Inca had touched them
with his mouth and lips, were held by the governors in greatest veneration,
as a sacred thing; they did not drink from them or touch them, instead
they put them like an idol, where they adored and revered them as
a memory of their Inca, which he had touched. Arriving at this point,
no tenderness will suffice to be able to sufficiently say how much
love and interior and exterior veneration which those Indians had
for their Kings.
"The toasts having been made and returned, they all
returned to their places. Then followed the dances, songs and dancing
in diverse styles, with the designs, heraldry, masks and inventions
which each nation had brought. And with all this singing and dancing,
they did not cease drinking, some Incas inviting others, some generals
and governors inviting others, according to their particular friendships
and the neighboring of their lands and other respects which they had
between each other.
"The celebration of the Solstice festival lasted nine
days, with the abundance of food and drink described, and with the
festivity and merriment which each could show; but the sacrifices
to make prognostications they did only on the first day. After nine
days the governors returned to their lands, with the permission of
the King, very happy and content from having celebrated the most important
festival of their god the Sun. When the King was occupied with war
or visiting the kingdom, they held the festival where they were, but
not with the solemnity of those in Cuzco; where they took care to
conduct it with the governing Inca and the highest cleric and the
other Incas of royal blood, and then the governors or ambassadors
of the provinces assisted which was nearest to them."
