diff --git a/pymbolic/primitives.py b/pymbolic/primitives.py
index f9cb7bf3f7d9e5b4a2b9a72842d133d75b9e4c1c..cd9beaf16153af150524e3bbd680bde7eb9821c6 100644
--- a/pymbolic/primitives.py
+++ b/pymbolic/primitives.py
@@ -2055,7 +2055,7 @@ def make_sym_array(name, shape, var_factory=Variable):
     import numpy as np
     result = np.zeros(shape, dtype=object)
     for i in np.ndindex(shape):
-        result[i] = vfld.index(i)
+        result[i] = vfld[i]
 
     return result