How are our Ayurvastra yoga mats coloured so beautifully.
Every colour in our yoga rug collection comes from a plant, a root, a seed or a fruit, most of them herbs that have been used in Ayurveda for thousands of years. Before it is ever woven, the raw cotton is dyed by hand using traditional Ayurvastra methods, with no synthetic dyes or mordants. Here is how each colour is made.
The foundation: harda
Cotton doesn't hold plant colour easily on its own. So for most of our colours, the raw cotton is first steeped in harda (myrobalan), a tannin-rich Ayurvedic fruit that helps each dye bind naturally to the fibre. It is the quiet beginning of almost every rug.
Indigo
Indigo (Mahārasā, Indigofera tinctoria) works differently from every other dye. It doesn't dissolve in water and needs no mordant at all. In a natural indigo vat, made without synthetic reducing agents, it is coaxed into a soluble yellow-green form. The cotton is dipped, then lifted into the air, where it turns from green-gold to blue as the indigo meets oxygen. Each dip and airing deepens the colour.
Turmeric
Turmeric (Haridrā, or Haldi) has been used to dye cloth for thousands of years. Its golden colour comes from curcumin, the same compound that makes it glow in the kitchen. The harda-prepared cotton is dyed in a simmered bath of turmeric root to give this bright, sunny gold.
Verdant Green
There is no single green plant dye that holds well on cotton, so traditional dyers make green by layering two colours. The cotton is dyed golden in turmeric, then dipped in the natural indigo vat. The blue settles over the gold to create this deep, mossy olive.
Sappanwood
Sappanwood (Raktaka, Caesalpinia sappan) is a red heartwood valued in Ayurveda and traded along ancient routes across Asia. Slow-simmered wood chips release a warm red that settles into soft, rosy tones on cotton.
Add siyahi, a traditional iron water fermented over weeks from iron and jaggery, and something lovely happens: the red deepens into a rich, earthy purple. This is the same transformation dyers in Japan once called "false purple".
Indian Madder
The roots of Indian madder (Mañjiṣṭhā, Rubia cordifolia) gave India's historic painted cottons their famous reds. The cotton is steeped in a bath of madder root, with fitkari (alum, a naturally occurring mineral) helping the colour bind. A lighter bath gives this gentle, sun-warmed coral.
Annatto
Annatto (Sindūri, Bixa orellana) comes from the seeds of the annatto tree. Their bright red-orange coating holds a natural pigment called bixin. On harda-prepared cotton it gives this warm, mellow amber.
Myrobalan
Myrobalan (haritaki, Terminalia chebula) is one of the most revered fruits in Ayurveda. On its own it gives cotton a soft buttery yellow. A light touch of siyahi reacts with its natural tannins and mellows the colour into this calm, earthy clay.
Harda
The same fruit, finished differently. Here the harda-steeped cotton is set with fitkari (alum) instead of iron, which keeps it in this soft, natural stone tone.
Ayurvedic Plain
Our Ayurvedic Plain rug isn't dyed at all, but the raw cotton is still steeped in a herbal kashayam before it is woven.
Living colour
Because each rug is dyed by hand before it is handwoven, no two are exactly alike. And like all living plant colours, they will mellow gently over time. To keep yours at its best, dry and store it away from strong direct sunlight.