Jaguars

This jaguar image comes from the USFWS National Digital Library. It was
created by Gary M. Stolz.

Panthera onca, or the jaguar as it is commonly called, is a large cat that you can find from South America up into Mexico and even the United States' South West. Though they are large (Males can be 200 pounds) and are carnivores, they like to stay away from people -- though they will attack if upset.

The ancient Maya had a lot of cultural connections to this beautiful animal. They thought it was sacred and they looked at it as a symbol connected to royalty. Jaguars were also mixed into the ancient Maya's religious beliefs: among the supernatural beings they believed to exist, there were ones that had jaguar features.

Supernatural Beings
One supernatural being that had features of a jaguar was the Unen Balam -- the Baby Jaguar --, the Water Lily Jaguar, and possibly the Jaguar God of the Underworld. The Baby Jaguar is a being that was drawn on codex style vessels. The Waterlily Jaguar was an underworld god as was the Jaguar God of the Underworld, who may have been an aspect of the sun.

With Royalty

Also from the USFWS National Digital Library. Created by
John and Karen Hollingsworth. 

At least with what ancient Maya art shows, looks like among royalty, it was cool to wear jaguar skins - it was a way of saying "I'm royal and can wear this skin because of that fact." It was a symbol of their right to rule, their power over everything.

And royalty didn't just wear jaguar skins. The art shows that it was common for royal thrones in art to have jaguar pelts on them. Royalty also took jaguar skins to the grave. Based on the fact that jaguar foot bones (phalanges) have been found in royal tombs, it looks like royal people's bodies were laid down on jaguar pelt mats. (Other kinds of mats were also used.)

As an Art Design
Speaking of art, the ancient Maya liked to include the jaguar in different items, including items made of ceramic as well as jade items and in structures like temples and stelae. Artists started to put jaguars into their works as far back as 1,000 BC.

One kind of pottery painted design artists would create was this: they would paint a jaguar skin on their pots, so that it looked like a real skin had been put on it. This style became notably popular in the 600s AD. The artists would include "loops" that may be representing how the skin pulls when being dried on the drying board. They would also draw the edge of the skin either with a flat edge or a ragged edge.

Wahy
A type of spirit being that the ancient Maya believed in was the wahy. Wahys could look like different things, including animals. In fact, one way to draw the glyph for wahy is a face that is half person and half jaguar pelt.

References
Google Books: "Mortuary Landscapes of the Classic Maya: Rituals of Body and Soul"; Andrew K. Scherer; 2015

Google Books: "The Life Within: Classic Maya and the Matter of Permanence"; Stephen Houston; 2014

Google Books: "The Maya Tropical Forest: People, Parks, and Ancient Cities"; James D. Nations; 2010

UMFA: Pre-columbian Art: Utah Museum of Fine Arts Evening for Educators; 10 March, 2004

The Free Dictionary: Encyclopedia: Jaguar

The Free Dictionary: Phalanx


Image Credits:
USFWS National Digital Library: Images: Jaguar; Gary M. Stolz

USFWS National Digital Library: Images: Jaguar; John and Karen Hollingsworth; April 18, 2008

The Jaguar God of the Underworld

This is a rollout of a vessel that comes from Guatemala and dates to the 500s AD to the 600s AD. It shows the Jaguar God
of the Underworld. From the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Like the Waterlily Jaguar, the Jaguar God of the Underworld was a supernatural jaguar being that the ancient Maya believed existed. This god seems to be connected to the underworld (Xibalbá) and may have been an aspect of the sun god. Other names you might see used for him include the Jaguar Night Sun, the Jaguar War God, and JGU. 

Features

Other than having jaguar features, the Jaguar God of the Underworld has some other characteristics of worthy of note. For one thing, his eyes were square. (This isn't unusual, because there are other ancient Maya gods also had square eyes.) The pupils of his eyes were spirals. (Archaeologists have found that underworld beings had spiral eyes.) Between his eyes, a twisted cord or rope goes up -- archaeologists call this a "cruller."

Then there was his teeth -- or more accurately, tooth -- as the ancient Maya drew him only with one. There were, however, two ways that they drew his tooth. One of the two ways they drew it was a fang. The second way was to draw it like a capital "T." (This "T" shape is an ik' symbol.) Both of these teeth were in the middle of his top gum, where a person's front teeth would normally go.

Finally, the ancient Maya drew this god with k'in signs. These are symbols of the sun.

Purpose

The Jaguar God of the Underworld may have been the sun at night (when it was going through the underworld) and been connected to the Moon. As such, he may have been an aspect of the sun.

There's another idea though. The Jaguar God of the Underworld may have been a fire god. The cruller may represent a rope used for a fire-making tool called a fire drill. And there are images of certain elites doing rituals connected to fire -- dressed as the Jaguar God of the Underworld.

This supernatural being was connected to several other things, one of which was war. (On a related note, one place you can see an image of the Jaguar Sun of the Underworld is the "Tablet of the Sun" at Palenque. On the tablet, his image is on a shield.) Art and Myth of the Ancient Maya says that the Maya in the Classic Period believed this god was a patron god of war. And that wasn't the only thing he was patron of -- he was also the number 7's patron god.

Connected Beings

Another supernatural jaguar being that the ancient Maya believed in was the Jaguar Baby (Unen Bahlam or Unen B'alam.) This being was an aspect of the Jaguar God of the Underworld, a form of him as a baby.

This is an stone carving of a "GI type deity."
It was made from limestone or marble around
100 BC to 100 AD and comes from Mexico.
From the Yale University Art Gallery.

Another god that the Maya at Palenque believed in, which archaeologists call GI, may also bee connected to the Jaguar God of the Underworld. GI could be the sun when it is rising -- and therefore be the Jaguar God of the Underworld turning into the sun god again. 

As Part of Glyph C

In monument inscriptions, the ancient Maya would take the time to write down calendar-related information. This included glyph C, which was part of a series of glyphs that talked about the moon. Part of glyph C could be one of three different images, depending on where the moon was at in its cycle. One of these, it seems, was the Jaguar God of the Underworld.

References:

Google Books: "Art and Myth of the Ancient Maya"; Oswaldo Chinchilla Mazariegos; 2017 

Google Books: "Mortuary Landscapes of the Classic Maya: Rituals of Body and Soul"; Andrew K. Scherer; 2015

  

Google Books: "Archaeoastronomy and the Maya"; Gerardo Aldana Y Villalobos, Edwin L. Barnhart (editors); 2014

Google Books: "Maya Sacred Geography and theCreator Deities"; Karen Bassie-Sweet; 2008

Google Books: "Maya Calendar Origins:Monuments, Mythistory, and the Materialization of Time"; Prudence M. Rice;2007

Google Books: "The Memory of Bones:Body, Being, and Experience Among the Classic Maya"; Stephen Houston, David Stuart, Karl Taube; 2006

Image Credits:

The Metropolitan Museum of Art: Vessel, Seated Deities

Yale University Art Gallery: Jaguar head of a GI type deity, probably an inset from a waist or chest assumblage