INTRODUCTION Rice (Oryza sativa L.) is the world's second most important cereal crop and a staple food for more than half of the world’s population. It is grown in 118 countries worldwide, with Asia accounting for 146 million hectares of the world's rice producing (FAO, 2019). Asia accounts for nearly 90% of global rice production and Asia is home to nine of the top ten rice producing and consuming countries. With 42.5 million ha, India is the world's major (largest) rice-growing country (Surendran et al., 2021). Rice cultivation in the country is carried out in a humid tropical and subtropical climate characterized by high temperature and relative humidity, resulting in changes in genetic integrity and faster deterioration of seeds. As the seed is the most important input in agriculture, it is essential to maintain the quality of seed for producing vigorous plants (Qun et al., 2007). Seed deterioration, an irreversible degenerative process that occurs during storage which reduces seed quality over time. On the other hand, the rate of deterioration is influenced by seed moisture content, which upon increasing causes faster deterioration (Ellis et al., 1992). Many physiological manifestations of seed deterioration have been extensively reported (McDonald, 1999; Jatoi et al., 2004; Kapoor et al., 2011). The most widely accepted criterion for seed deterioration is loss of seed viability and germinability. It takes at least three to four months to study the deteriorative changes that occur with age. As a result, an alternative approach known as accelerated ageing is used, which induces desired changes in rice in a shorter time span, resulting in properties similar to those of naturally aged rice (Gujral and Kumar 2003). MATERIALS AND METHODS Experimental Materials: The present study was carried out at the Indian Institute of Rice Research, Hyderabad and the Central Instrumentation Cell, PJTSAU, Hyderabad during 2021 in order to determine the effect of accelerated ageing on viability, moisture and seedling length in ten different rice genotypes, namely RNR-15459, RNR-21278, RNR-29325, RNR-28361, JGL-38168, JGL-38957, JGL-38071, JGL-18047, JGL 38237 and JGL-38917. Accelerated ageing (AA): AA was traditionally performed with distilled water and a saturated salt solution (NaCl). The seeds were spread uniformly over a plastic net in a desiccator which contains 100 ml of distilled water. The main purpose of the plastic net is to avoid contact between the seeds and the distilled water. Saturated Salt Accelerated ageing (SSAA) is accomplished in the same way as described above by replacing distilled water with saturated salt solutions (Olivera et al., 2020). The seeds were collected after 24, 48 and 72 hour intervals respectively. Moisture content (%): It was determined by drying the sample in a hot air oven at 103°C for 17 hours (ISTA, 2013). Viability (%): The viability of seeds is determined by using the traditional tetrazolium method (Moore, 1973). Seedling length: Three replicates of ten seeds each were germinated using the paper towel method and after eight days of germination, five normal seedlings were chosen at random from each replicate and their length was measured. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION Parameters investigated during the study include seed viability, moisture, and seedling length. In the control group, initial seed viability ranged from 100 to 88 percent (unaged seeds). A significant decrease in viability was observed during bothTraditional Accelerated Ageing(TAA) and SSAA, with RNR 15459, RNR 29325, and JGL 38917 exhibiting negative behaviour with SSAA. In TAA, the maximum decline in viability was observed in RNR 15459 (95-24%), followed by JGL 38917 (89-22%) (Fig. 1), and the maximum decline in SSAA conditions was observed in JGL 38168 (100-63%), followed by JGL 38237 (99-87%) (Fig. 2). RNR 28361 was found to be the least affected in terms of viability during both ageing conditions. Similar decline in viability were observed in rice by Kapoor et al. (2011); Somasundaram and Bhaskaran (2017); Sasaki et al. (2015); in Niger seeds by Gordin et al. (2015); Jathropa by Suresh et al. (2019) and Tetrapleura by Sossou et al. (2019). Moisture content increased in all rice genotypes under both ageing conditions. The percentage moisture increase was greater during TAA than during SSAA. The moisture content of the varieties ranged from 11 to 13% (unaged) across all genotypes. RNR 29325 had the greatest increase in moisture during TAA (11-29.8), followed by RNR 15459 (11-30.9 percent) (Fig. 3). There was a significant progressive increase in moisture with increase in duration of accelerated ageing in rice genotypes by Prakash et al. (2020); Bijanzadeh et al. (2017); Kavitha et al. (2017); Hussain et al. (2012) in maize and Kapoor at al.(2010) in chick pea. During SSAA the highest was observed in JGL 38957 at 72 hours of ageing treatment (Fig. 4) such differences were observed by Ellis and Hong (2007) in rice, Oliveira et al. (2020) in Brachiaria brizantha. At both conditions, the accelerated ageing treatment resulted in a significant decrease in seedling length. The length decrease was greatest at TAA, and complete loss of germination was observed in RNR 15459, RNR 21278, JGL 38957, and JGL 38917 after 72 hours of TAA (Fig. 5). RNR 29325 had the greatest decrease in seedling length during 72 hours of SSAA, followed by JGL 18047 (Fig. 6). similar reduction pattern in seedling length in rice was reported by Garcia and Coelho (2021); Bijanzadeh et al. (2017); Govindaraj et al. (2017); Raja et al. (2019) in rice; Ghasemi et al. (2014) in wheat; Yagushi et al. (2014) in soy bean; and Vijayalakshmi et al. (2014) in tomato.