The tribals though illiterate, themselves have an amazing sense of colours and aesthetics, as they have been involved in this art form for centuries. They, generally use bright natural dyes in the hues of reds and rust.

It is quite rare to find the colour Green in old tribal rugs as it is derived by mixing blue with yellow. More importantly, it is the colour of prophet Mohammed (Messenger of Allah) and most of the carpet weavers in the world, being Muslims, avoid using it as a sign of respect.

The older carpets, owing to these factors tend to last a lifetime and are extremely durable.

In vegetable dyes, the dyes do not blend in uniformly and form variations within the same hues and colours which is called an Abrash.

An abrash is a not a defect and is the easiest way for a layperson to ascertain if a carpet has been vegetable dyed or not. There is another kind of abrash which is like a shade band and part or half of the carpet appears to be in a different colour than the original part. This happens because wool is a natural fibre with no two fibres being alike and has different absorption properties.

When a tribal herdsman dyes the wool he may do it in different stages while using varying qualities of wool this also sometimes results in a highly superior quality of wool being used for part of the carpet. That is why sometimes one tends to have a silken sheen on the carpets. Some carpets appear lighter from one side and darker from the other. The primary reason for that is the extraordinarily fine wool or silk used and also since the pile flows from one direction to another. The angle at which the light hits the pile makes the colour change.

Additionally, once the weaver runs out of wool that he produces annually he may wait a year or so for additional wool this would lead to variation in colour and dyeing and hence lead to shade bands.