Sinchi Roca

In colonial-era Inca foundation traditions and later summaries, Sinchi Roca is the second Sapa Inca of the Hurin dynasty, succeeding the founder-figure Manco Capac. He is placed in the early dynastic era of Cuzco (dated in sources to c. 1230–c. 1260) and is described as continuing and institutionalizing political and ritual practices of the nascent Inca polity; genealogical and succession details derive from foundation myths and colonial chronicles rather than contemporary documentary evidence.

The sources do not give a physical portrait of Sinchi Roca. Chronicled descriptions of early Inca investiture regalia—mascapaicha (a red wool fringe with strands each passed through small gold tubes, surmounted by Korekenke feathers) and the llautu/llauto (a multicoloured braid turban of fine vicuña wool)—are reported in 16th-century accounts and are associated in tradition with early Sapa Incas; the sources attribute the association of such regalia to Sinchi Roca in Spanish chronicler tradition but do not provide a first-person physical description of him.

Reported actions and functions in the sources are political, administrative and judicial rather than supernatural: leading his family to the Cuzco valley (foundation narrative), dividing land into territories, initiating a census of the Inca population, ordering members of the Inca people to pierce their ears as a sign of nobility, and implementing agrarian improvements such as building terraces and importing soil (as reported by Pedro Cieza de León). A legend recorded in colonial accounts tells of a llama shepherd (llamamichi) who took a woman loved by the Inca; the shepherd confessed under torture that he had obtained a wacanqui (a love-amulet) 'from a demon in a cave'—this story functions as a judicial anecdote in the sources rather than evidence that Sinchi Roca himself possessed magical powers.