From Gondi Folklore
Megh Raja and Megh Rani had two daughters, one was the Sun and the other the Moon. The Sun was the elder and bigger. The Moon was very beautiful and so Lakshman went to serve for her as Lamsena. Then the Sun was jealous, ‘I am the elder, but she is so beautiful that she has got a husband immediately.’ One day as the two girls were playing together, Lakshman was sitting in a little hut playing his fiddle. They heard what the Sun said to the Moon, ‘Lend me your ornaments and let us go to listen to this sweet music.’ The Sun put on the Moon’s ornaments and by a trick cut off her head. But she was afraid that the head would join itself onto the body again. So she cut it into several pieces and sat on her flying chariot and flew away. Because she wears the Moon’s ornaments she shines more brightly. The Moon is always in pieces and the stars are drops of her blood.
When Lakshman saw his bride cut to pieces, he quarrelled with her parents and her sister the Sun. ‘I have worked for twelve years as Lamsena: either give me wages for those twelve years or else celebrate my marriage.’ Megh Raja and Megh Rani were frightened and did not know what to say. After some time Megh Rani gave birth to another daughter whose name was Bijaldeo Manya. Then the father said to Lakshman. ‘Live and work here for another twelve years and we will give you this girl in marriage.’ So he worked for another twelve years. But the parents said to themselves, ‘If we marry out daughter to this man, her name will be famous and there will be war on her account.’ So they put the maiden inside a hollow bamboo and said to Lakshman, ‘We give you our daughter. Take her home but do not open the bamboo until you are inside your house.’ Lakshman said, ‘You have not arranged my marriage, and now you are giving me a bit of bamboo. I won’t take it.’ Then the parents made a little booth, anointed Lakshman with haldi oil; they dressed the hollow bamboo in a girl’s cloth and carried it with Lakshman round the pole. They said to him, ‘This is our daughter. Take her home, but do not look at her on the way.’ But as he was going along, Lakshman could not resist opening the bamboo to see his bride. She slipped out and disappeared as lightning in the sky. He made a bow and arrow of grass, and the thunder is the noise of his endless pursuit.
Source:
Chapter 2, Myths of Middle India, Verrier Elwin, 1949
Kotharian Lightning 