Mama Qaqa or better known as ‘Mother Stone’ is present among the wak’as (or huaca. A wak’a (Quechua) is an object or monument or even natural location that is revered), that Pole de Ondegardo names as ‘Pururaukas’.
There are many imposing uncarved wak’as within a stone wall in various parts of Cusco and Machu Picchu that are respected and remain untouched. If we go to the Sacred Valley of the Incas to the city of Calca, we find in its summit a clear sample of these Pururukas. This huaca is located near the Huch’uy Qosqo (small Cusco), according to several chroniclers and historians this citadel was constructed by the mandate of Inka Wiraqocha (Viracocha) after the dark episode of the Chankas, the enemies of the Inca. Legend connects the Ayar brothers and these pururauka – and that the monoliths came to life to fight the invading Chanka army as cited by Carolyn Dean of the University of California, Santa Cruz, in hre paper, “Andean Androgyny and the Making of Men.” Others say that it was built by the mandate of Kusi Yupanki whose father lived there because he did not want to return to Cusco.
Near this city you can see a wak’a that is not in the writings of Albornoz or Polo de Ondegardo. This great wak’a is enclosed on a circular stone fence, the inhabitants of this area call it Mama Qaqa (A mother stone), it is said that nobody should touch it and that it is like that for hundreds of years, for this reason the Inkas set up a wall to protect it, since it was sacred to them. In the city of the Cusco, in the street Totora Paccha are two huacas that are very respected by their characteristics (one vertical and the other horizontal).
Brian S. Bauer, of the Anthropology Department of the University of Illinois asserted that it was Pachatosa, Bauer asserted that it was Pachatosa, the second waka and the seque was that of the Antisuyu. Polo said that it was a large stone that was next to the house of Cayo and it “ate the sacrifices”. For Bauer, he placed offerings on the large flat rock known as a round table.
In Machu Picchu there is also another Pururauka inside a magnificent stone drum known as the Temple of the Sun or Watchtower. This magnificent huaca is embedded in its second floor. The polished wall that envelops this great rock has an enormous resemblance to the wall that protects the wak’a that is in the Qorikancha. The Mama Qaqa of Cusco is cited by Polo in its relation of the wak’as and seques of the Kuntisuyu. He says that in the first seque (Anawarque), the first wak’a was a stone called Subaraura which was where is now the viewpoint of Santo Domingo, which they believed was believed to be the main pururauca. Cristóbal de Albornoz explains the wak’as and says that they are called “Mother” to those who had something out of the ordinary, like the mothers of the mines. This was the “Mother” of the Imperial city.
