diff --git a/jax/interpreters/pxla.py b/jax/interpreters/pxla.py
index bd7aac66ce77..05ae62aac03d 100644
--- a/jax/interpreters/pxla.py
+++ b/jax/interpreters/pxla.py
@@ -47,7 +47,7 @@
 from .. import lazy
 from ..abstract_arrays import (ConcreteArray, ShapedArray, array_types,
                                raise_to_shaped)
-from ..util import (partial, unzip2, prod, safe_map, safe_zip,
+from ..util import (partial, unzip2, unzip3, prod, safe_map, safe_zip,
                     extend_name_stack, wrap_name)
 from ..lib import xla_bridge as xb
 from ..lib import xla_client as xc
@@ -211,7 +211,38 @@ def _shard_array(x, devices, indices):
   return [xla.device_put(x[i], d) for (i, d) in zip(indices, devices)]
 for _t in array_types:
   shard_arg_handlers[_t] = _shard_array
-shard_arg_handlers[xla.DeviceArray] = _shard_array
+
+def _shard_device_array(x, devices, indices):
+  start_indices, limit_indices, removed_dims = map(tuple, unzip3(
+      _as_slice_indices(x, idx) for idx in indices))
+  shards = x._multi_slice(start_indices, limit_indices, removed_dims)
+  return [xla.device_put(s, d) for s, d in zip(shards, devices)]
+shard_arg_handlers[xla.DeviceArray] = _shard_device_array
+
+# NOTE(skye): we could refactor to generate _multi_slice parameters directly
+# from the input ShardingSpec, rather than the indices. However, this would
+# require duplicating the ordering logic of spec_to_indices, which is more
+# subtle and more likely to change than the index logic we have to support here.
+def _as_slice_indices(arr: xla.DeviceArray, idx: Index) -> Tuple[
+    Tuple[int, ...], Tuple[int, ...], Tuple[int, ...]]:
+  """Returns start_indices, limit_indices, removed_dims"""
+  start_indices = [0] * arr.ndim
+  limit_indices = list(arr.shape)
+  removed_dims = []
+
+  tuple_idx = idx if isinstance(idx, tuple) else (idx,)
+  for dim, sub_idx in enumerate(tuple_idx):
+    if isinstance(sub_idx, int):
+      start_indices[dim] = sub_idx
+      limit_indices[dim] = sub_idx + 1
+      removed_dims.append(dim)
+    else:
+      assert isinstance(sub_idx, slice)
+      start_indices[dim] = sub_idx.start
+      limit_indices[dim] = sub_idx.stop
+
+  return tuple(start_indices), tuple(limit_indices), tuple(removed_dims)
+
 
 def shard_aval(size, aval):
   try:
diff --git a/jax/numpy/lax_numpy.py b/jax/numpy/lax_numpy.py
index 5dd39df35769..50a47d5450f8 100644
--- a/jax/numpy/lax_numpy.py
+++ b/jax/numpy/lax_numpy.py
@@ -48,7 +48,8 @@
 from ..interpreters.masking import Poly
 from .. import lax
 from .. import ops
-from ..util import partial, get_module_functions, unzip2, prod as _prod, subvals
+from ..util import (partial, get_module_functions, unzip2, prod as _prod,
+                    subvals, safe_zip)
 from ..lib import pytree
 from ..lib import xla_client
 
@@ -390,7 +391,7 @@ def fmax(x1, x2):
   return where((x1 > x2) | isnan(x2), x1, x2)
 
 @_wraps(onp.finfo)
-def finfo(dtype): 
+def finfo(dtype):
   return dtypes.finfo(dtype)
 
 @_wraps(onp.issubdtype)
@@ -724,7 +725,7 @@ def _conv(x, y, mode, op, precision):
   if ndim(x) != 1 or ndim(y) != 1:
     raise ValueError(f"{op}() only support 1-dimensional inputs.")
   x, y = _promote_dtypes_inexact(x, y)
-  
+
   out_order = slice(None)
   if len(x) < len(y):
     x, y = y, x
@@ -3967,12 +3968,24 @@ def _operator_round(number, ndigits=None):
 setattr(DeviceArray, "broadcast_in_dim", lax.broadcast_in_dim)
 setattr(DeviceArray, "split", split)
 
-@jit
-def _unstack(x):
-  if x.ndim == 0:
-    raise ValueError("Argument to _unstack must be non-scalar")
-  return [lax.index_in_dim(x, i, keepdims=False) for i in range(x.shape[0])]
-setattr(DeviceArray, "_unstack", _unstack)
+@partial(jit, static_argnums=(1,2,3))
+def _multi_slice(arr: DeviceArray,
+                 start_indices: Tuple[Tuple[int, ...]],
+                 limit_indices: Tuple[Tuple[int, ...]],
+                 removed_dims: Tuple[Tuple[int, ...]]):
+  """Extracts multiple slices from `arr`.
+
+  This is used to shard DeviceArray arguments to pmap. It's implemented as a
+  DeviceArray method here to avoid circular imports.
+  """
+  results = []
+  for starts, limits, removed in safe_zip(start_indices, limit_indices, removed_dims):
+    sliced = lax.slice(arr, starts, limits)
+    if removed_dims:
+      sliced = sliced.reshape(onp.delete(arr.shape, removed_dims))
+    results.append(sliced)
+  return results
+setattr(DeviceArray, "_multi_slice", _multi_slice)
 
 
 # Syntactic sugar for scatter operations.