Guru Granth Sahib the guru disowned him and forbade his Sikhs to associate with him or his descendants. A partial English translation of Guru Granth Sahib by Ernest Trumpp was published in 1877. The work was for use by Christian missionaries, and received extremely negative feedback from Sikhs. Max Arthur Macauliffe also partially translated the text for inclusion in his six-volume "The Sikh Religion", published by Oxford University Press in 1909. His translations are closer to the Sikhs' own interpretation of the holy scripture, and were received well by them. The first complete English translation of Guru Granth Sahib, by Gopal Singh, was
Adi Da also criticized Adi Da's claims toward the exclusivity of his realization. In part, critics point to his earlier message strongly rejecting the necessity for any religious authority or belief, due to "enlightenment" being every individual's natural condition. Adi Da heavily edited subsequent editions of his books, for which they have been criticized as auto-hagiography and self-mythology. University of Southern California religion professor Robert Ellwood wrote, "Accounts of life with [Adi Da] in his close-knit spiritual community [describe] extremes of asceticism and indulgence, of authoritarianism and antinomianism...Supporters of the alleged avatar rationalize such eccentricities as shock therapy for the sake of