page_title: Queen Aishwarya of Nepal
section_title: Family background
hierarchical_section_title: Queen Aishwarya of Nepal / Family background
caption_attribution_description: English: Queen Aishwarya of Nepal at 1970 as Crown Princess
context_page_description: Aishwarya Rajya Lakshmi Devi Shah was the Queen of Nepal from 1972 to 2001, also referred as Bada Maharani. She was the wife of King Birendra and the mother of Crown Prince Dipendra, Prince Nirajan, and Princess Shruti. She was the eldest among the three daughters of late General Kendra Shumsher Jang Bahadur Rana and Shree Rajya Lakshmi Devi Shah in Lazimpat Durbar, Lazimpat, Kathmandu.
  She was celebrated as a woman of classical beauty. Her ways of dressing and hairstyles are still famous.
context_section_description: She was from the Rana family which had ruled Nepal for 104 years. She was the eldest daughter of General Kendra Shumsher Jang Bahadur Rana (1921–1982) and his wife, Shree Rajya Lakshmi Shah (1926–2005). She had two brothers (Suraj Shumsher Jang Bahadur Rana; Uday Shumsher Jang Bahadur Rana) and two sisters (Queen Komal Rajya Lakshmi Devi Shah; Princess Prekshya Rajya Lakshmi Devi Shah).  After her death, her younger sister became Queen consort of Nepal. Her family had been the effective rulers of Nepal until the 1950s. In 1969, she married Birendra Bir Bikram Shah Dev, then Crown Prince of Nepal (and her second cousin).
  Aishwarya's youngest sister Prekshya also married into the Shah dynasty marrying Gyanendra and Birendra's brother Prince Dhirendra who was killed in the palace massacre. They divorced in the 1980s. Princess Prekshya was killed in a helicopter crash on 12 November 2001.
caption: Crown Princess Aishwarya in 1970 AD
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