Soaking of rough rice is the most time consuming operation in the parboiling process. A combined soaking procedure for parboiling of rough rice was developed based on the gelatinization temperature of rice starch to achieve rapid completion of soaking. Long grain rough rice (P-1121) was selected. Its starch gelatinization temperature was determined as below 700C using alkali degradation method. Soaking characteristics of rough rice were studied at 50, 60, and 700C. Below the gelatinization temperature, soaking proceeded in the normal way; however above the gelatinization temperature, excessive water absorption, husk splitting, actual cooking of rice kernels were observed. The combination soaking procedure, involve soaking paddy at 700C in the first stage until an intermediate moisture content of 31.67% wb (approx. 1 hr) followed by soaking at 600C as the second stage up to the saturation moisture content of 34.15 % wet basis (wb) (approx. 5 hr) with a total time of 6 hr. The results shows sharp rise in the head yield after milling for all the soaked samples of P-1121 when steaming duration increase from 60 sec to 90 sec.