The Inca royal kinship group or lineage was called a panaca.
A panaca was the royal house or clan associated with a Sapa Inca. It consisted primarily of the ruler’s descendants and relatives, and it continued to preserve his memory after his death. Panacas maintained royal estates, palaces, sacred objects, and ceremonies connected with the founding ruler of the lineage.
The system helped organize Cusco’s elite. Each deceased ruler’s panaca had political and economic interests, and its members could influence succession, property, ritual life, and court politics. The designated heir, known as the auqui, was generally excluded from his father’s panaca because he would form a new royal house after becoming Sapa Inca.
Panaca is often confused with ayllu. An ayllu was a broader Andean kin-based community, while a panaca referred specifically to an Inca royal lineage or royal ayllu. Historical terminology is not completely uniform: some scholars argue that panaca and ayllu were once overlapping concepts, but panaca remains the standard answer for an Inca royal house.