Panakas

Panaka leads here. For Captain Panaka, a fictional character in Star Wars, see List of Star Wars characters#Quarsh Panaka

A panaca or panaqa, or panaka was a family clan of the Sapa Inca, the kuraka or emperor of the Inca Empire. The panacas were formed by the descendants of a Sapa Inca or his wife. The basic social institution of the Incas is the ayllu. An ayllu is a group of families that descended from a common ancestor, united by culture and religion, in addition to the agricultural work, livestock and fishing of the same territory. The ayllu concept transcended into nobility, so that the royal kinship could establish a lineage, called panaca or royal house.^[1]

The panaca excluded the auqui (in Quechua awki), the crown prince, who would succeed him. When the designated successor became emperor, he would leave his original panaca and form his own one.^[2]

The panakas made up the Inca's court and formed the aristocracy of Cusco. They maintained multiple sacred shrines, performing ceremonies in the name of the ruler-founder emperor of the panaka, and maintaining the memory of the deceased emperor and his mallki (mummy), through songs, quipus and paintings that were transmitted from generation to generation.^[3]: 42

In the spatio-temporal ceque system, in which each region, both Hanan (high), Anti Suyu and Chinchay Suyu, and Hurin (low), Cunti Suyu and Colla Suyu, had groups of three ceques, symbolic lines or pathways, the panakas were represented by the Payan ceque.^[4]