Chanka People - Cusco

Cusco

It was in 1438 that the alleged leader Hanan Chanca "Anccu Hualloc" mythified himself so that the people or the "ayllus of Ancoyaco" (also called Anco Huayllu or Hancoallo) gathered 40,000 warriors from war and launched the conquest of Cusco. He advanced victoriously to encircle the city. The Inca Viracocha and many of the nobility fled in the direction of Collasuyo in despair until a prince, Cusi Yupanqui (who later proclaimed himself Pachacutec), bravely led the resistance. While able to gather allies he offered peace to the besieged, but they rejected the offer. A bloody battle was fought in Yawarpampa ("field of blood"), providentially won by Cusco by the timely arrival of friendly forces.

This difficult victory became a legend in the story collected by the Indian chronicler, Joan de Santa Cruz Pachacuti Yampa Salcamaygua (1613). He states that the battle would have been lost if the stone soldiers ("pururaucas") had not been brought miraculously to life—stones were dressed as soldiers to fool the Chancas.

Further information: The Legend of soldiers Pururauca

According to the victors, 22,000 chancas and 8,000 cusqueños (natives of Cusco) died at Yawarpampa. Anccu Hualloc was injured and captured. The Hanan chancas were chased as far as Antahualla (Apurímac).

The leader who defended Cusco took up sovereign power and founded a new dynasty. According to the Commentarios Reales de los Incas by Garcilaso de la Vega, the Inca fugitive was the old Yawar Huácac and the prince that took up the defence of Cusco was his son, Hatun Topa, afterwards called Viracocha Inca. According to Juan de Betanzos(1551), the fugitive was the old Wiracocha and not only him but his successor (and brother of Cusi Yupanqui), Inca Urco, escaped responsibility, the prince Cusi Yapanqui (later called Pachacútec)being their saviour. (??)

According to the victors, the Inca was the elder fugitive Yawer Huácac and the prince who assumed the defense of Cuzco was his son Topa Hatun, named after Viracocha Inca. This is the most accepted version, which coincides with the chronicle of Miguel Cabello de Balboa (1583) and the most refined chronologies.

Other chroniclers, among them Bernabé Cobo (1653), mention a second attack by the Chancas shortly after, also headed by Anccu Huayco against Pachacútec. The imprisoned leader not only managed to escape, but gathered 8,000 Chanca fighters in Challcumarca and in Suramarca and resumed the war, this time to regain the lost territories. Being inferior in force, he chose to escape to the jungle "to a region of large ponds or lakes", following the course of the Urubamba river.