Introduction: The combination of both isosulphan blue and the radioactive sulphur colloid gives the best result and is the standard procedure for performing Sentinel lymph node biopsy (SLNB) in node negative early breast cancer to stage the axilla. Isosulphan blue is costly and nuclear medicine facility is not widely available.  An affordable, equally efficient alternative could be the use of methylene blue dye alone for doing SLNB. Materials and methods: Of the 81 node negative early breast cancer patients included in the study, 46 were subjected to the combination method of methylene blue and radioactive sulphur colloid with validation done in the first 20 patients and 35 to methylene blue only for carrying out SLNB. All the patients in the dye only method were subjected to axillary lymph node dissection (ALND) following SLNB. Results: Sentinel lymph nodes identification rate in the combination method was 97.8% and methylene blue dye was 91.4%. False negative rate in combination method and blue dye only method were 0 and 9% respectively. All other results were concurrent. Sensitivity and specificity of the combination method was100% and methylene blue dye only method was 90.91% and 100% respectively. None of the patients had any major complications pertaining to methylene blue dye injection. Conclusion: The results of methylene blue dye alone are comparable to the combination method for SLNB. When nuclear medicine facilities are not available, the use of blue dye alone could be justified to carry out SLNB to avoid ALND when not necessary. However, this needs validation by further studies in large numbers.