Amauta

The title amauta (master or wise in Quechua) refers to those who were engaged in formal education, especially related to the children of the nobility in the Inca empire.

According to Fray Martin de Murua, a missionary in Peru, education in the Inca empire was provided and instituted in the "Yachaywasi" or House of Knowledge. These learning sites located in Cuzco enrolled students from the Inca nobility, and trained them in the knowledge and arts of the nobility. The mmautas taught future rulers the moral standards and the religious, historical and government tenets of the Inca Empire. They also taught math, science and medicinal knowledge, cosmological ideas of the earth and the universe, Inca history, religious philosophy and the Quechua language.

The original "Yachaywasi" was constructed and inaugurated by Inca Roca. More schools like this were built as the empire grew, and were the centers of teaching the primary ideologies, histories and philosophies of the Inca empire. The Amautas maintained this knowledge through an oral tradition and passed it on to future generations.

References

• Castillo Morales, Juan. Historia del Perú. Editorial Universo.  (in Spanish)
• De la Vega, Garcilaso. The Royal Commentaries of the Incas. 

See also

• Amauta Project, sponsored by the Departamento de Ciencia y Tecnología of the OEA (in Spanish)