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In an article on PIE accent, alderson@cisco.com (Rich Alderson) writes:
 
>Vedic Sanskrit had a pitch rise on the accented syllable within a word, with a
>slightly lower than normal pitch on the immediately preceding syllable and a
>much lower than normal pitch on the immediately following syllable. . . .  The
>accented syllable is called _udatta_ "raised" in Sanskrit grammatical
>treatises, and the following is called _anudatta_ "not raised."

Here is a passage from one of those treatises, in my own rough translation:

	The words _uda:tta_, _anuda:tta_, and _svarita_ are well known
	both in the world and in the veda in the sense of a pitch
	(_svara_) that is a quality of a speech sound.  Here (i.e.,
	in this and the next two sutras) they are given as technical
	designations of vowels that possess such a quality.  A vowel
	that is pronounced high is called _uda:tta_.  "High" is not
	to be understood to refer to the force of the sound, as when
	we say, "He speaks 'high,'" i.e., "He speaks out loud," or
	"He recites 'high,'" i.e., "He recites out loud."  How, then,
	is it to be understood?  "High" is with respect to the place
	of articulation; it is a word that modifies the term that is
	here being defined.  Speech sounds are produced at the five
	places of articulation, and these places of articulation have
	different parts; a vowel that is produced in the upper
	part of a place of articulation is called _uda:tta_.  While
	it is being produced, the organs of articulation are tense
	and contracted, the pitch is rough and dry, and the opening
	of the throat is constricted.

This is from the _Ka:'sika: V.rtti_, a fifth century (?) commentary on
Pa:.nini's _A.s.ta:dhya:yi:_.  It is the comment on sutra 1.2.29, _uccair
uda:tta.h_.

What I find noteworthy here is that the accent is being related to the 
places of articulation in the mouth.  Whenever I have thought about
Old Indic accent, which is admittedly not very frequently, I have
imagined it as something more or less musical: the _uda:tta_ was a
few notes higher than the _anuda:tta_.  But this passage clearly says
that a vowel with the _uda:tta_ is pronounced in a different place than
a vowel with the _anuda:tta_.


Rahul Bonner