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Birth

There are uncertainties about Atahualpa's date and place of birth. He was likely born around the turn of the 16th century, c. 1502. There is disagreement on his place of birth. Below are the versions of some chroniclers and historians:

The chronicler and soldier Pedro Cieza de León, from his investigations among the members of the Inca nobility of Cusco, affirmed that Atahualpa had been born in Cusco and that his mother was Tuto Palla or Túpac Palla (Quechua names), an 'India Quilaco' or 'native of Quilaco'. This demonym could allude to an ethnic group from the province of Quito and would imply that she was a second-class wife belonging to the regional elite. Cieza de León denied that Atahualpa was born in Quito or Caranqui and that his mother was the lady of Quito, as some at the time claimed, since Quito was a province of Tahuantinsuyo when Atahualpa was born. Therefore their kings and lords were the Incas.

According to Juan de Betanzos, Atahualpa was born in Cusco and his mother was a ñusta (Inca princess) from Cusco of the lineage of Inga Yupangue (Pachacuti).

In the 18th century the priest Juan de Velasco, using as a source a work by Marcos de Niza, whose existence has not been confirmed, compiled information about the Kingdom of Quito (whose existence has not been confirmed either). According to de Velasco, the Kingdom of Quito was made up of the Shyris or Scyris ethnic group and disappeared when it was conquered by the Incas. This work includes a list of the kings of Quito, the last of whom, Cacha Duchicela, would have been the Kuraka (Inca cacique) defeated and killed by the Inca Huayna Cápac. Paccha, the daughter of Cacha Duchicela, would have married Huayna Cápac, and from that union Atahualpa would have been born as a legitimate son. Several historians, such as the Peruvian Raúl Porras Barrenechea and the Ecuadorian Jacinto Jijón y Caamaño, have rejected this version for lack of historical and archaeological foundation.

Most Peruvian historians maintain that, according to the most reliable chronicles (Cieza, Sarmiento and Betanzos, who took their reports firsthand), Atahualpa was born in Cusco and his mother was a princess of Inca lineage. These historians consider that Huáscar's side invented the version of Atahualpa's Quito origin to show him to the Spanish as a usurper and bastard. They also believe that many chroniclers interpreted the division of the empire between the two sons of Huayna Cápac (Huáscar, the eldest son and legitimate heir; and Atahualpa, the bastard and usurper) according to their European or Western conception of political mores. According to Rostworowski this is wrong because the right to the Inca throne did not depend exclusively on primogeniture or paternal line (because the son of the Inca's sister could also be heir) but also practical considerations such as the ability to command.

Ecuadorian historians have conflicting opinions: