Coniraya- Inca GodDeity

The Beggar God

Coniraya walked the world in rags. A creator deity of immense power, he chose to appear as a poor, dirty beggar, testing the people and creatures he met, rewarding those who showed him kindness and punishing those who mocked him. In the Huarochirí tradition he carries the name Coniraya Viracocha, linking him to the great creator. But he is no remote cosmic power. He wanders, he schemes, he desires, and the world takes shape in his wake.

The Lucuma Trick

Among the deities who knew his true nature was Cavillaca, a virgin goddess who refused every god who sought her. Coniraya could not accept her rejection. He transformed his seed into a lucuma fruit and placed it where she sat weaving. When she ate the fruit, she became pregnant. When she summoned all the gods and her baby crawled to the ragged beggar standing among them, she seized her child and fled in rage toward the sea. Coniraya ran after her.

The Chase Along the Coast

As Coniraya pursued Cavillaca, he stopped every creature he met to ask which way she had gone. The condor told him he was close behind her, and Coniraya blessed it to live forever, feeding freely on carrion. The fox lied and said she was far ahead, so Coniraya cursed it to be hated and hunted. The skunk gave discouraging news, and he cursed it with a stench that would never lift. Blessings and curses laid down along the coast as a creator god ran, still making the world even in his grief.

The Fish in the Sea

Coniraya reached Pachacamac too late. Cavillaca and her child had already walked into the ocean and become the rocks that stand offshore. At the sanctuary he found the goddess Urpayhuachac, who kept the only fish in the world confined in a small pond near the sea. In the chaos of Coniraya's visit, his pursuit of Urpayhuachac's daughter and his anger when she escaped him, the pond was overturned, and the fish spilled out into the ocean. This is why, in Huarochirí tradition, there are fish in the sea at all.