''Shiksha'', states Hartmut Scharfe, was the first branch of linguistics to develop as an independent Vedic field of study among the Vedangas.<ref name="Scharfe1977p78"/> This is likely because Vedas were transmitted from one generation to the next by oral tradition, and the preservation and the techniques of preservation depended on phonetics, states Scharfe.<ref name="Scharfe1977p78">{{cite book|author=Hartmut Scharfe|title=Grammatical Literature|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=2_VbnWkZ-SYC&pg=PA207|year=1977|publisher=Otto Harrassowitz Verlag|isbn=978-3-447-01706-0|pages=78-79}}</ref> | ''Shiksha'', states Hartmut Scharfe, was the first branch of linguistics to develop as an independent Vedic field of study among the Vedangas.<ref name="Scharfe1977p78"/> This is likely because Vedas were transmitted from one generation to the next by oral tradition, and the preservation and the techniques of preservation depended on phonetics, states Scharfe.<ref name="Scharfe1977p78">{{cite book|author=Hartmut Scharfe|title=Grammatical Literature|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=2_VbnWkZ-SYC&pg=PA207|year=1977|publisher=Otto Harrassowitz Verlag|isbn=978-3-447-01706-0|pages=78-79}}</ref> |