The accentuation is marked in manuscripts only of the older literature: namely, in the primary Vedic texts, or saṁhitās, in two of the Brāhmaṇas (Tāittirīya and Çatapatha), in the Tāittirīya-Āraṇyaka, in certain passages of the Āitareya-Āraṇyaka, and in the Suparṇādhyāya. There are a number of methods of writing accent, more or less different from one another; the one found in manuscripts of the Rig-Veda, which is most widely known, and of which most of the others are only slight modifications, is as follows.

a. The acute syllable is left unmarked; the circumflex, whether independent or enclitic, has a short perpendicular stroke above; and the grave next preceding an acute or (independent) circumflex has a short horizontal stroke below. Thus,

b. But the introductory grave stroke below cannot be given if an acute syllable is initial; hence an unmarked syllable at the beginning of a word is to be understood as acute; and hence also, if several grave syllables precede an acute at the beginning of a sentence, they must all alike have the grave sign. Thus,

c. All the grave syllables, however, which follow a marked circumflex are left unmarked, until the occurrence of another accented syllable causes the one which precedes it to take the preparatory stroke below. Thus,

d. If an independent circumflex be followed by an acute (or by another independent circumflex), a figure 1 is set after the former circumflexed vowel if it be short, or a figure 3 if it be long, and signs of accent are applied as in the following examples:

The rationale of this mode of designation is not well understood; the Prātiçākhyas give no account of it. In the scholastic utterance of the syllable so designated is made a peculiar quaver or roulade of the voice, called kampa or vikampana.

e. The accent-marks are written with red ink in the manuscripts, being added after the text is written, and perhaps often by another hand.