jiva

In Hinduism and Jainism, a jiva (, , alternative spelling jiwa; , , alternative spelling jeev) is a living being, or more specifically, the immortal essence or soul of a living organism (human, animal, fish or plant etc.) which survives physical death. It has a very similar usage to atma, but whereas atma refers to "the cosmic self", jiva is used to denote an individual "living entity" or "living being" specifically. To avoid confusion, the terms paramatma and jivatma (also commonly spelled jeevatma) are used.

Jiva or Jiwa may also refer to:

• Jiva- the immortal essence of a living organism in Hinduism and Jainism.
• Jivá, a Sanskrit trigonometric term also known as jya; see Jya, koti-jya and utkrama-jya

Jya, koti-jya and utkrama-jya are three trigonometric functions introduced by Indian mathematicians and astronomers. The earliest known Indian treatise containing references to these functions is Surya Siddhanta. These are functions of arcs of circles and not functions of angles. Jya and koti-jya are closely related to the modern trigonometric functions of sine and cosine. In fact, the origins of the modern terms of "sine" and "cosine" have been traced back to the Sanskrit words jya and koti-jya.